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The eastern garter snake is commonly located in the eastern part of Minnesota. They will often hide their heads and secrete a foul-smelling fluid from a gland near its tail. They are harmless. Photo by Ralph LaPlant

Often the range of a bird changes. The red-bellied woodpecker is a bird whose range has changed possibly because of the loss of elm trees (a nesting site) due to epidemics, a gradually warming climate and because of a dramatic increase in bird feeders. The result is that the range of this bird had move northward and westward. Interestingly, the northwest range of this bird is the southern half of Minnesota, where it is considered a regular and permanent resident.
    This bird prefers nesting in forests that are generally in humid areas as humidity promotes the decay of wood. There a nest is excavated in broken off tops and branches of dead trees, often 15 to 60 feet above the ground where three to six white eggs are laid following a loud and active mating season. Theses eggs are incubated for 14 days.  If a pair is successful with raising young, they will come back to the same tree and make a nest below the one used the previous year.
    Being insect and fruit eaters, the red-bellied woodpecker eats flies, grubs and beetles. The downside is that is eats domestic bees and has been described as “…worse than the kingbird, phoebe, or wood peewee.” I recall my father telling me that during World War II he had raised bees for honey for the war effort. He also told me he had a permit allowing him to shoot kingbirds because of their destruction at his apiaries. I find it interesting that the red-bellied woodpecker is considered worse than the kingbird.  As far as foods go, this bird consumes acorns, which it stores in cracks and crevices, and other small fruits. I have these woodpeckers at one of my bird feeders and recently discovered that they can be drawn in with halves of oranges.
    Being about 10” long, this bird has a red-topped head and is “zebra-backed.” The male has no interruption with the red as the female does. The name “red-bellied” is somewhat of a misnomer. Some birds have faint a red area on the belly and some have none, causing some bewilderment about the bird’s name.
    The future for this bird is questionable. It appears that redheaded and red-bellied woodpeckers will, at times, compete viscously for nesting sites. The redheaded woodpecker is often the victor. Starlings, birds that are secondary cavity nesters (they use excavated cavities created by other birds as they cannot do so themselves), occasionally take over the red-bellied’s nests. The good news is that with a greatly increased interest in bird feeding and the other reasons mentioned above that cause this bird’s range expansion, the red-bellied woodpecker will probably flourish.