Another New Bird In The Garden
It’s been a rather wet, cold, and dismal weekend. One bright spot, though, was the sighting of another new avian visitor to the garden: the Red-headed Woodpecker. In fact, this was the first time either Judy or I had ever seen this particular bird, in the garden or out.
This bird is really striking with its crimson head, snow-white body, and black wings with large white patches. Its unusual appearance has given rise to a number of common names, including Half-a-shirt, Shirt-tail Bird, Flag Bird, and Flying Checkerboard.
Unfortunately, the number of Red-headed Woodpeckers has declined dramatically in recent decades, mostly due to habitat loss. It likes open woodlands, especially pine forests. Its diet consists of insects and fruit, but sometimes will feed on suet at birdfeeders.
Judy and I are hoping to see this bird regularly in the future. Maybe it will even be nesting nearby.
gardeninacity 
So exciting! They are really beautiful. I’ve had a red-bellied woodpecker visiting my yard this spring. Love it when he shows up!
We do see the red -bellied woodpeckers now and then, along with the Downies and Hairys. We used to have Northern Flickers also, but haven’t seen them in at least a year.
This is great! I would have been so excited, I have not seen this particular woodpecker myself
First time for us. We were pretty excited.
Very exciting. This is almost on the level of your Varied Thrush. 🙂
You think so? I haven’t been contacted by birders wanting to spot this bird. Though we haven’t seen it since that day.
Red-Headed Woodpeckers aren’t rare, they’re not vigrants, but they’re declining, so it’s always special to see one.
It’s wonderful when new birds come to your garden, I feel we have to do what we can to attract them when they are losing habitat at such a rate. I hope it stays with you.
I hope so, too. Maybe they will nest nearby.
Gorgeous! I always have several woodpeckers and flickers at my feeders, but I have not seen this one either.
We used to have flickers, but haven’t seen any in a while.
It is very beautiful I’m rather wary of Woodpeckers as here they have a tenancy to make holes in house walls or shutters, they do a lot of damage which can be costly!
They will do that here, too. Our house has mostly vinyl siding, though that doesn’t completely stop them. We have some wooden railings which they well sometimes peck away at.
We have downy and pileated woodpeckers here. The pileated was up on the roof tapping away on the chimney and I though the house would collapse with the noise. He finally figured out he could not penetrate metal. On another note, I have cardinals nesting in an large ninebark bush. In 46 years I have never seen them nest in the yard.
Woodpecker sightings are always exciting! We usually see a few downy woodpeckers throughout the season at our feeders, especially the suet – never seen a red headed woodpecker, though.
Gorgeous birds and apparently they have good taste to pick your yard. Let’s hope they are nesting!
I’d certainly like to think that they are nesting, and that they have good taste!
Beautiful bird! I’ve never seen one. Yes, hope a pair is nesting nearby.
Keeping my fingers crossed.
Gorgeous! I’ve never seen one of those!
A first for us also.
I’m so excited for you. I, too, saw the red-headed woodpecker in my yard a few weeks ago. It was the first time in my life that I had seen him. Unfortunately, he didn’t stay around. Just a few days ago, I was in a parking lot of a hospital and saw another one flying from tree to tree.
In a recent post, you had photos of the rose-breasted grosbeak. That’s another bird I had never before seen. So gorgeous! He was at my feeders off and on throughout the day for about five days in late April and early May, and then disappeared. According to my bird book, he’s a migrator in my area (Richmond, VA) so maybe I’ll see him again during a future migration.
Same here with the Grosbeaks – they just stop for a week or so on their way through. I will say that once we saw them they made it a habit to stop by our garden every spring.
What a handsome bird. Lucky you.
Indeed.
Fabulous! I used to have an old pecan tree that hosted generations of a woodpecker family. Alas it decayed and had to be removed. And no more woodpeckers.
That’s a wonderful sort of tree to have. I wish we had a big hickory or a burr oak.
What luck getting a life bird in your garden! It is a handsome woodpecker. They are so noisy and gregarious. We love watching them nest in the park not far from us. Congrats on the new garden bird.
I’m fond of woodpeckers, even if they are noisy.
I see them here occasionally. It’s a pretty bird!
Agreed.
I hope you see this bird again. It’s a compliment to you and Judy to have such a handsome visitor.
Thank you, it’s nice to think so.
What a beauty! I do hope it hangs around to grace your trees! We have a similar bird which visits our gardens. You must be doing a lot of things right attracting so many, diverse birds.xxx
I certainly hope so. Do you have woodpeckers in the UK?
Cool! It’s always exciting to see a new bird species in the garden. I’ve only seen this one a few times, and I think it was somewhere north of us in Wisconsin. Enjoy!
I think Wisconsin generally has a wider selection of birds than we do around here.
I’ve never seen one of these — lucky you! I do have a red-bellied who’s been stopping by my balcony to pick up some of the peanuts in the shell I put out for the bluejays and cardinals. With no yard and no trees other than palms, I never expected to see one, but now that I’m looking I see him on a palm tree occasionally. It’s a bit of an odd sight.
I think I read somewhere that palm trees are very popular with birds.
I do know that cedar waxwings love palm fruits. I’ve seen them strip trees of their fruit in only hours.
Hello Jason, I’ve seen the woodpeckers with the red on the lower front and back of the head (Greater Spotted Woodpecker?) but not one with a completely crimson-red head. It’s “flying chequerboard” moniker is pretty funny.
We call those Woodpeckers the Red-Bellied Woodpeckers, if we’re thinking of the same bird. Here’s a link. https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Red-bellied_Woodpecker/id
Lucky ducks! Supposedly, these are common here, though I’ve never seen one.
First time sighting for us.