THE RED-BELLIED WOODPECKER 



New York, southern Ontario, Michigan, and southern 

 Minnesota. It breeds throughout this range and appears 

 to be irregularly migratory. It appears to go north of 

 its breeding range sometimes to spend the winter. Four 

 stomachs, collected in November and December, were re- 

 ceived from Canada, and in eight years' residence in cen- 

 tral Iowa die writer found the species abundant every win- 

 ter, but never saw one in the breeding season. It is rather 

 more of a forest bird than some of the other woodpeckers, 

 but is frequently seen in open or thinly timbered country. 

 In die northern part of its range it appears to prefer de- 

 ciduous growth, but in die South is very common in pine 

 forests. 



"Ants are a fairly constant article of diet. The most 

 are taken during the warmer months. Evidently this bird 

 does not dig all the ants which it eats from decaying wood, 

 like the downy woodpecker, but, like the flickers, collects 

 them from the ground and the bark of trees. 



"In Florida, the bird has been observed to eat oranges 

 to an injurious extent. It attacks the over-ripe fruit and 

 pecks holes in it and sometimes completely devours it. 

 The fruit selected is that which is dead ripe or partly de- 

 cayed, so it is not often that the damage is serious. The 

 bird sometimes attacks the trunks of the orange trees as 

 well as others and does some harm. The contents of the 

 stomachs, however, show that wild fruits are preferred, 

 and probably only when these have been replaced by cul- 

 tivated varieties is any mischief done." ^ 



2 Farmers' Bulletin 506, U. S. Dcpt. of Agriculture, Biological Survey. 



[135] 



