BIRDS OF NANTUCKET
ONE OFALGORE'S FAVORITE BIRDS?
by Kenneth Turner Blackshaw
Global warming? This week's bird has decided it's happening. This particular feathered critter never made it this far north until the early '70s when a few strayed in. The Edith Andrews Bird Collection at Maria Mitchell has one from May of 1973. It finally became a Christmas Bird Count bird in 1987, and has been continuously since 1998, with 13 counted in 2006. So the trend is continuing.

Red-Bellied Woodpecker

Birders can tick off a bunch of birds like this that never used to be found here but now we see regularly - Snowy and Common Egrets, Carolina Wren, and American Oystercatcher. There are others like the House Finch, Northern Cardinal, and Black-capped Chickadee (yes that used to be an uncommon bird here) that are now very common, but for them you could say bird feeding has made the difference.

This bird is a woodpecker. It sometimes comes to feeders but not always. So it's on Nantucket now because its zone of survival has extended to the north. My Dad in Virginia refers to this bird as "Big Red." Birders know it as the Red-bellied Woodpecker. It's a very different looking beast compared to the smaller black and white checked Downy Woodpeckers that are much more common.

Red-bellied turns out to be a pretty awful name for this bird but it's still better than the scientific name, Melanerpes carolinus, that translates to a "black creeper from the Carolinas." What strikes you right off is the huge amount of red - on the head! Only under very ideal conditions can you pick out a tinge of pink on the belly.

Many non-birders call these Red-headed Woodpeckers. They are responding to all this red that starts where the back meets the neck and then cuts a wide swath over the top of the head to the bill. Females have less red but still more than a

Downy. If you are lucky enough to see the rare

Red-headed Woodpecker here, you'll see that the entire head is a stunning bright cranberry red.

The Red-belly's back is a contrasting series of narrow black and white horizontal stripes. The belly is a soft grey. They are striking birds to see but you may miss them unless you learn their calls. Like most woodpeckers their vocal calls are contact notes, "I'm here. Where are you?" sorts of things. You hear a "Chuck, chuck, chuck" sound with the emphasis on the first "chuck." Occasionally the "chucks" are strung out into a rattling sound a bit like the kingfisher's call. I remember the kingfisher's call described as like rattling dry chicken bones in a pickle jar.

Red-bellies advertise for females and also mark their territory not by singing but by drumming. The more resonant the cavity they find, the better. In Georgia one loved the metal cap on my chimney and would fill my living room with a sound like the ringing of a school bell. The good news is most of them are satisfied by finding a good hollow tree. This is also where they excavate their nesting cavities, perhaps a foot deep, where their four eggs are laid. Both sexes work on the site and share with the incubation, the males generally taking the night shift. The young are naked and blind when hatched and it takes over three weeks before they are ready to launch themselves from that hole in the tree, often 40 feet up in the air.

Red-belly diet is about 50-50 animal and vegetable, so they don't spend all their time drilling bugs out of trees. Quite often they hop along the ground and will even get in ungainly positions to capture sunflower seeds from your bird feeder. Down south they feed on citrus fruit that has fallen to the ground. They are also big on caching away nuts and seeds in tree cracks or fence posts for the future.

Scientists consider Red-bellies to be more wanderers than migrators so there is no great north south flight pattern for them every year. On Nantucket you are as likely to find one in June as in January. In 2006 we had the first nesting evidence when a young bird was observed being fed from a suet feeder in a yard near Miacomet Pond.

To see a Red-bellied Woodpecker on Nantucket the two best places are the Lily Pond and also the Lover's Lane area of the State Forest. As you walk these areas, listen for the "Chuck, chuck, chuck" call notes and then follow your ears to see Big Red and also find another clue

about global warming. I

George C. West creates illustrations for these articles. If you enjoy 'social' birding, join the Nantucket Bird Club at 8 a.m. Sundays in front of Nantucket High School for a two to three hour birding trip. Call 228-1693 for more information. To hear about rare birds, or to leave a bird report call the Massachusetts Audubon hot line at 1- 781-259-8805. Ask Ken a question at: kenandcindy1@ comcast.net.