I could sit for hours watching Red headed Woodpeckers forage in the trees on a sunny morning. The way the sunlight reflects off of their crimson heads is just gorgeous!
Red headed Woodpecker
Did you know that Red-headed Woodpeckers are dedicated omnivores?
Flying from tree to tree, they’re known to eat invertebrates, acorns, beechnuts, chestnuts, fruit, seeds, berries, corn, lizards, mice, eggs, and even the young of other birds!
The changing seasons have an effect on what they eat. During the spring and summer, they’ll hunt for insects and small animals. In the cooler months of the fall and winter, they’ll switch over to eating seeds and nuts.
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Red headed Woodpeckers are one of the few species of bird that actually stores it’s food for later consumption. If you watch them long enough, you may observe them shoving insects, seeds and acorns under the bark and into the crevices of trees.
These handsome woodpeckers will fiercely defend their food stores from potential thieves, which include crows, blue jays, and other woodpeckers.
Photos by @sally_siko of @birdwatching_nc on the @canonusa #5ds