Knock. Knock. Knock…… Come In!!

Male Red-bellied Woodpecker - Photo Credit - Wikipedia

I had a new visitor to my bird feeders yesterday morning, a male red-bellied woodpecker.  It was difficult to identify him at first because he would swoop down to pick up a seed and fly back up into the trees. When he discovered the suet basket hanging from the house eave, I finally got the chance to get a close look at him.

What a beautiful bird! He had a bright red hood that covered the back of his head; his wing feathers, black with white markings. Perched on the basket, the woodpecker was able to use his long beak to reach through the bars to peck at the suet cake.

For a novice birder like me, woodpeckers are an easy bird to spot. The tap-tap-tap sound is a guaranteed cue that there are woodpeckers close by; it is up to me to figure out the exact species. Over the years, I have spotted only three varieties of woodpeckers around my yard: the small Downy Woodpecker, the large Pileated Woodpecker and now the red-bellied. By the number of trees with holes bored into them, it is likely that I have more woodpeckers visiting than I have actually seen.

Woodpeckers have a bad reputation for creating big holes in buildings. From my perspective, the woodpecker is doing a service for the homeowner. If they are pecking at your siding, chances are there are nests of insects living within the walls. I would rather be patching a hole from the outside of the house, rather than discover extensive insect damage that had gone undetected for years.

Knowing that woodpeckers are frequenting my suet basket I have become more diligent in keeping the basket filled with fresh suet. That extra effort provides me with the benefit of getting an up close and personal look at these magnificent birds.