(_Melanerpes erythrocephalus_) Woodpecker family
_Called also_: TRI-COLOR, RED-HEAD
_Length_--8.50 to 9.75 inches. An inch or less smaller than
the robin.
_Male and Female_--Head, neck, and throat crimson; breast and
underneath white; back black and white; wings and tail blue
black, with broad white band on wings conspicuous in flight.
_Range_--United States, east of Rocky Mountains and north to
Manitoba.
_Migrations_--Abundant but irregular migrant. Most commonly
seen in Autumn, and rarely resident.
In thinly populated sections, where there are few guns about, this is
still one of the commonest as it is perhaps the most conspicuous
member of the woodpecker family, but its striking glossy
black-and-white body and its still more striking crimson head,
flattened out against the side of a tree like a target, where it is
feeding, have made it all too tempting a mark for the rifles of the
sportsmen and the sling-shots of small boys. As if sufficient
attention were not attracted to it by its plumage, it must needs keep
up a noisy, guttural rattle, _ker-r-ruck, ker-r-ruck,_ very like a
tree-toad's call, and flit about among the trees with the restlessness
of a flycatcher. Yet, in spite of these invitations for a shot to the
passing gunner, it still multiplies in districts where nuts abound,
being "more common than the robin" about Washington, says John
Burroughs.
All the familiar woodpeckers have two characteristics most prominently
exemplified in this red-headed member of their tribe. The hairy, the
downy, the crested, the red-bellied, the sapsucker, and the flicker
have each a red mark somewhere about their heads as if they had been
wounded there and bled a little--some more, some less; and the figures
of all of them, from much flattening against tree-trunks, have become
high-shouldered and long-waisted.
The red-headed woodpecker selects, by preference, a partly decayed
tree in which to excavate a hole for its nest, because the digging is
easier, and the sawdust and chips make a softer lining than green
wood. Both male and female take turns in this hollowing-out process.
The one that is off duty is allowed "twenty minutes for refreshments,"
consisting of grubs, beetles, ripe apples or cherries, corn, or
preferably beech-nuts. At a loving call from its mate in the hollow
tree, it returns promptly to perform its share of the work, when the
carefully observed "time is up." The heap of sawdust at the bottom of
the hollow will eventually cradle from four to six glossy-white eggs.
This woodpecker has the thrifty habit of storing away nuts in the
knot-holes of trees, between cracks in the bark, or in decayed fence
rails--too often a convenient storehouse at which the squirrels may
help themselves. But it is the black snake that enters the nest and
eats the young family, and that is a more deadly foe than even the
sportsman or the milliner.
[Illustration: YELLOWBIRD'S NEST, SHOWING COWBIRD'S EGG]
[Illustration: BROTHER AND SISTER ROSE-BREASTED GROSBEAKS,
TWO WEEKS OLD]
[Illustration: ROSE-BREASTED GROSBEAKS, SIX DAYS OLD.]