How to Raise a Red-Headed Woodpecker

Raising a red-headed woodpecker, also known as a flag bird, can be an exciting and rewarding hobby. Red-headed woodpeckers are easy to spot because of their distinct red head, shoulders and neck. They also have a white belly and rump coupled with a black back and tail. Red-headed woodpeckers inhabit a large range of North America from Ontario to Texas and the Rocky Mountains to the Atlantic Ocean. With patience and dedication, you can rear a red-headed woodpecker to flourish in the wild as well as interact with you.

Things You'll Need

  • Dead wood
  • Dead trees
  • Fruit
  • Nuts
  • Worms
  • Insects
  • Tube feeder
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Instructions

  1. Instructions

    • 1

      Construct or purchase a birdhouse or gather up dead wood and trees to create a good nesting place for the red-headed woodpecker. Red-headed woodpeckers thrive around dead wood and trees. They often use hollowed-out portions of dead wood to nest so that they can lay eggs and care for babies. Both males and females share incubation responsibilities.

    • 2

      Reproduce the red-headed woodpecker's environment as closely to its natural habitat as possible. You can find these woodpeckers near rivers and in groves, open woodlands, farmlands, shade trees and deciduous forest. Your backyard, then, should have an abundance of trees well-suited to harboring woodpeckers. If you have a stream or creek on your property, that is even better.

    • 3
      You can catch nightcrawlers at dusk after rain on a warm night.

      Feed the red-headed woodpecker a steady diet of worms, beetles and other types of boring insects, spiders and even baby mice. Red-headed woodpeckers are omnivorous, so you can also feed them seeds, berries and fruit, too. You can use a tube feeder for the fruits and seeds. While red-headed woodpeckers will drill through the bark of trees to catch their food, they actually spend more time hunting for insects while perching on tree branches.

    • 4

      Talk regularly to the red-headed woodpecker. It may not understand what you are saying, but it can connect with you based on the tone of your voice. You can even whistle to the red-headed woodpecker. The more you attempt to communicate with the woodpecker, the more it will recognize and trust you. Birds are fickle creatures, so do not be discouraged if it takes time to establish a bond with the red-headed woodpecker.