The bird has been visiting her suet feeders regularly for more than a month. Thompson e-mailed a photo that confirmed her identification beyond a shadow of a doubt - entirely red head and neck, solid-black upper back, big white wing patches, white rump and white breast. Really a handsome creature.
According to the Delaware birding hot line, another red-headed woodpecker has been reported regularly this winter in Covered Bridge Farms near Newark (to check the hot line reports, visit www.virtualbirder.com).
The chance to watch such a bird at the feeder is a treat to be treasured. Although red-headed woodpeckers were very common in the 18th and 19th centuries, they have become so unusual in our area now that the 1980s breeding bird survey on which the "Birds of Delaware" atlas is based found only one breeding pair in both Kent and New Castle counties (the species is a little more numerous in Sussex County).
This decline has been attributed to various things including the advent of the automobile (red-headed woodpeckers were often killed in the early days of cars when the birds flew down to pick up insects on the pavement), and the spread of the European starling (which competes with the woodpecker for nest holes). DDT may have been a factor - insects make up at least half of this bird's diet, and the species took a real nosedive between 1940 and 1972, when DDT was in use in this country.
But habitat destruction is probably the biggest culprit - red-headed woodpeckers like large trees in open groves or scattered in fields. Cut-over and burned-over woods also attract them, and they prefer to dig their nest cavities in old dead trees that have lost their bark. "Progress" has erased many of these habitats in our area. Thompson's situation, at the edge of a woods, is just what her red-headed woodpecker needs.
Red-headed woodpeckers don't do much migrating - from the northernmost reaches of their range in Canada and New England, they do fly south; also, redheads do some wandering in the winter. But there's a good chance that Thompson's bird won't be too far away this summer.
Meanwhile, it's a bird she can report with pride during this weekend's Eighth Annual Great Backyard Bird Count, a citizen census developed and managed by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and National Audubon Society with sponsorship from the Wild Birds Unlimited stores. Anyone can participate by keeping count of the kinds and numbers of birds in the yard - or in a park nearby - between Friday and Monday (February 18 to 21). Results of your census can be reported online at www.birdsource.org/gbbc; if you don't have an Internet connection, you should be able to report at your local library or by visiting a Wild Birds Unlimited store.
Tally sheets can be printed from the Web site above, along with lists of bird species found in specific regions - including details on species that can be confusing to identify.
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The events below are public, and free unless otherwise noted. Where trip leaders are named, please contact them to confirm arrangements, get directions and let them know you're planning to attend.
- Feb. 19:Hardcore owling trip, sponsored by Cecil Bird Club - from 4 a.m. "til we drop." Meet at (yes) 4 at the Dunkin Donuts parking lot in Big Elk Mall and be prepared to persevere. Leader, Sean McCandless, 410-392-3407 or seanmccandless1@comcast.net.
- Feb. 26: Cape May (N.J.) birding trip, sponsored by West Chester Bird Club; meet at 9 a.m. at the lighthouse at Cape May Point. Leader, Jim Russell, 610-399-1580.
- Every Wednesday: Bird walk, 8:15-10:15 a.m., at Tyler Arboretum, 515 Painter Road, Media, (610) 566-9134. Leaders, Tom Reeves and Ted Swan; bird walk is free with arboretum admission ($5 for adults, $3 for youngsters 3-15). No pre-registration required; take binoculars and a bird book.
Frances Hamilton has written about birds in Chester County since 1968. Write to her at P.O. Box 426, Dept. AGS, Landenberg, PA 19350, or e-mail birdlady@birdlady.com.
