Bird Study 



75 



THE RED-HEADED WOODPECKER 



Teacher's Story 



The red-head is well named, for his 

 helmet and visor show a vivid glow- 

 ing crimson that stirs the sensibili- 

 ties of the color lover. It is 

 readily distinguished from the other 

 woodpeckers because its entire head 

 and bib are red. For the rest, it is 

 a beautiful dark metallic blue with 

 the lower back, a band across the 

 wing, and the under parts white; 

 its outer tail feathers are tipped 

 with white. The female is colored 

 like the male, but the young have 

 the head and breast gray, streaked 

 with black and white, and the 

 wings barred with black. It may 

 make its nest by excavating a hole 

 in a tree or a stump or even in a 

 telegraph pole; the eggs are glossy 

 white. This woodpecker is quite 

 different in habits from the hairy 

 and downy, as it likes to flit along 

 from stump to fence-post and 

 catch insects on the wing, like a 



fly-catcher. The only time that it pecks wood is when it is making a hole 

 for its nest. 



As a drummer, the red-head is most adept and his roll is a long one. 

 He is an adaptable fellow, and if there is no resonant dead limb at hand, 

 he has been known to drum on tin roofs and lightning rods; and once we 

 also observed him executing a most brilliant solo on the wire of a barbed 

 fence. He is especially fond of beechnuts and acorns, and being a thrifty 

 fellow as well as musical, in time of plenty he stores up food against time 

 of need. He places his nuts in crevices and forks of the branches or in 

 holes in trees or any other hiding place. He can shell a beechnut quite 

 as cleverly as can the deer mouse ; and he is own cousin to the Carpenter 

 Woodpecker of the Pacific Coast, which is also red-headed and which drills 

 holes in the oak trees wherein he drives acorns like pegs for later use. 



The red-headed wood pecker. 

 Drawing by L. A. Fuertes. 



LESSON XVI 

 THE RED-HEADED WOODPECKER 



Leading thought The red-headed woodpecker has very different habits 

 from the downy and is not so useful to us. It lives upon nuts and fruit 

 and such insects as it can catch upon the wing. 



Methods If there is a red-head in the vicinity of your school the 

 children will be sure to see it. Write the following questions upon the 

 blackboard and offer a prize to the first one who will make a note on 

 where the red-head stores his winter food. 



