Red-bellied Woodpecker
(Melanerpes carolinus)

Overview

Summary

© Ken Thomas
For additional photos and vocalizations, visit Dendroica. (Link opens in a new window.)

One of the rarest woodpeckers in Ontario, this species mainly breeds in the eastern United States and has a restricted but expanding range in Canada. The Red-bellied Woodpecker prefers mature deciduous forests, primarily Carolinian forest. The population and distribution have increased dramatically in southern Ontario since about 1970, as documented by the Breeding Bird Survey.

Designations

Population status

Population estimate

Distribution maps

• BirdLife International / NatureServe
• North American Breeding Bird Survey (BBS): Relative Abundance and Breeding Distribution (1970-2016)

Migration strategy, occurrence

Responsibility for conservation

General nesting period in Canada

Conservation and management

The Red-bellied Woodpecker's range expansion has been facilitated by its generalist foraging and nesting habits, and a warming climate (Shackelford et al. 2000, Kirchman and Schneider 2014). As a forest habitat generalist, it is unlikely that this species will become threatened in the near future. It can be found in urban settings, as well as more remote forests (Shackelford et al. 2000).

Bird conservation region strategies

Environment and Climate Change Canada and partners have developed Bird Conservation Region Strategies in each of Canada’s Bird Conservation Regions (BCRs). In these strategies, selected species are identified as priorities for one or more of the following reasons:

• conservation concerns (i.e., species vulnerable due to population size, distribution, population trend, abundance, or threats)
• stewardship responsibilities (i.e., species that typify the regional avifauna or have a large proportion of their range or population in the sub-region)
• management concerns (i.e., species that require ongoing management because of their socio-economic importance as game species, or because of their impacts on other species or habitats)
• other concerns (i.e., species deemed a priority by regional experts for other reasons than those listed above or because they are listed as species at risk or concern at the provincial level)

Select any of the sub-regions below to view the BCR strategy for additional details.

References

• Kirchman, J.J., and K.J. Schneider. 2014. Range expansion and the breakdown of Bergmann's Rule in Red-Bellied Woodpeckers (Melanerpes carolinus). Wilson Journal of Ornithology 126(2):236-248. Kirchman, J.J., and K.J. Schneider. 2014. Range expansion and the breakdown of Bergmann's Rule in Red-Bellied Woodpeckers (Melanerpes carolinus). Wilson Journal of Ornithology 126(2):236-248. (Link)
• Shackelford, C.E., R.E. Brown and R.N. Conner. 2000. Red-bellied Woodpecker (Melanerpes carolinus), The Birds of North America Online (A. Poole, Ed.). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Shackelford, C.E., R.E. Brown and R.N. Conner. 2000. Red-bellied Woodpecker (Melanerpes carolinus), The Birds of North America Online (A. Poole, Ed.). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. (Link)