XXXIX 



Red-headed Woodpeckek; Tricolor 

 406. Melanerpes erythrocephalus 



The red, white and bluish-black markings of the Red- 

 headed Woodpecker are so well defined and so uniformly 

 present that having once recognized the bird is to re- 

 member it. It is ten inches long and more migratory 

 in its habits than are its cousins, Downy and Hairy. 

 While most of these birds have taken their departure 

 by October a few may remain in the central states all 

 winter and may be seen with the Downy seeking food 

 stored in the crevices and holes by the last summer's 

 neighbors. (Fig. 61.) 



The Red-headed Woodpecker has the habit of laying 

 up a winter's supply of acorns and nuts, which it often 

 never returns to eat. It is a great destroyer of injurious 

 wood-borers and foliage-eaters. I have, on two or three 

 occasions, caught this bird in the act of destroying the 

 eggs and devouring the young of other birds. It builds 

 its nest in a cavity excavated by its own labors in a dead 

 tree trunk or a dead limb of a live tree. Here it lays from 

 four to six eggs which, like those of most birds that nest 

 in dark recesses, are pure white, unmarked. 



This bird is especially fond of clearings where many 

 large dead trees have been left standing, from the tall- 

 est limbs of which it seeks its winged prey. No flying 

 insect coming within visual range is safe. I have seen 

 a Woodpecker fly from its perch, vertically, two hun- 

 dred feet, and catch some kind of flying moth or beetle. 



Woodpeckers often quarrel among themselves and 

 with their bird neighbors, regardless of any justification, 

 but, though quarrelsome and inclined to fight one an- 

 other, there are times when they show much friendship 

 and sense of humor while playing a game of *'You Are 

 It" or '*Hide-and-Seek.'^ It is of absorbing interest 

 to watch a half-dozen of these birds engaged in this 

 amusing pastime. 



127 



