The names of some birds can be confusing. For example, the red-bellied woodpecker, a common woodpecker of Virginia, doesn’t have much of a red belly. It merely has a wash of crimson on the lower part of its smoky-gray belly. The name has probably stuck because in the 1730s, Catesby named it “picus ventre rubro,” or, “woodpecker with a red abdomen.” 

     It is often mistaken for the red-headed woodpecker, but the male has red only across the top of its head to the nape of its neck, while the red-headed has a full red head, extending hood-like to its breast. The red-bellied’s head color is more of a bright red-orange instead of the deeper red of the red-headed woodpecker. The female has red only from the nape to the top of her head. It doesn’t extend all the way to her forehead. A better name for the red-bellied woodpecker is one of its local names, “zebra back,” because of the black and white horizontal stripes on its back.

     The red-bellied woodpecker is anywhere from 9 to 10-1/2 inches long, shaped and patterned after another common, but brownish woodpecker, the flicker. Like the flicker, the red-bellied frequently feeds on the ground on ants, beetles, nuts and a variety of wild and domestic fruits. They have not endeared themselves to orange growers in Florida, due to their habit of tapping ripening fruit on the trees as well as sap from the trunks. They will also help themselves to the sap out of the holes or sap wells made by the yellow-bellied sapsucker, another common woodpecker.

     The red-bellied woodpeckers are very vocal and noisy birds, with a variety of scolding calls and harsh notes. They are among those woodpeckers that like to rattle your rain gutters or anything else that resonates, in spring. They are cavity nesters, preferring deciduous tree, and seem to favor swamp and bottomlands, but can be found in mature forests in the mountains, and will frequent farm and suburban areas too. You will find them from the Dismal Swamp in southeastern Virginia to the Piedmont, to the mountains of western Virginia, and farms and yards in between. They lay three to eight eggs, normally four or five, which hatch in about 14 days. Both parent birds take part in the rearing and feeding. In the south, they may have two and sometimes three broods, while in the north they usually have only one.

     Look for the red-bellied woodpecker at the feeder come winter. It will take sunflower seeds or suet, and they’ll feed in the mulch beds on various insects. Once considered a southern woodpecker, it has been moving its range northward in recent decades. 

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