By: Sally Siko- Admin Birdwatching N.C.

One of the best parts about living in central North Carolina is the opportunity to see all kinds of incredible birds in the springtime. In addition to the migratory species moving through, we’ve got access to view a small number of endangered species as they enter their breeding season.

Recently I took a quick trip to the Weymouth woods Preserve near Pinehurst N.C. to see if I could grab some photos and video of the endangered Red cockaded Woodpecker. Happily, I was not disappointed!

Shortly upon arrival, I found a nest in an old Long-leaf Pine tree and had the opportunity to watch a pair of woodpeckers flying in and out of their tree as they fed the nestlings inside. Check out the video below!

Unlike most North American woodpeckers, Red-cockaded Woodpeckers are a social species that live in family groups with a highly developed, cooperative breeding system. This also makes them unique amongst all bird species–only 3% of bird species breed in this manner. Another interesting behavior to note is that these woodpeckers use a group of trees, known as a “cluster”, to develop nesting/ roosting cavities en mass. Family groups generally consist of 2–6 birds with one monogamous breeding pair and 1–4 helpers. The helpers are typically the pair’s male offspring from the previous breeding season, who have delayed their own reproduction in order to help their parents in raising their siblings. The family group grows in size during the course of the breeding season with the hatching and fledgling of new young.

Red cockaded Woodpeckers are adapted to mature, living, open-pine forests. It is estimated that there are about 6,000 groups of red-cockaded woodpeckers, or 15,000 birds from Florida to Virginia and west to southeast Oklahoma and eastern Texas, representing about 1 percent of the woodpecker’s original range.

The Red-cockaded is the only woodpecker which excavates cavities exclusively in living pine trees. Cavity trees that are being actively used have numerous, small resin wells which exude sap. The birds keep the sap flowing apparently as a cavity defense mechanism against rat snakes and possibly other predators. The typical territory for a group ranges from about 125 to 200 acres. Habitat loss and degradation have greatly reduced its range and negatively affected this species, which has been considered Federally Endangered since 1968.

Seeing these lovely birds in the wild was absolutely thrilling! I’m so glad that I was able to photograph them at the Weymouth Woods Preserve.