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Red-bellied Woodpecker

The Red-bellied Woodpecker (Melanerpes carolinus) is a medium-sized woodpecker of the Picidae family. It breeds in southern Canada and thenortheastern United States, ranging as far south as Florida and as far west as Texas.

Adults are mainly light gray on the face and underparts; they have black and white barred patterns on their back, wings and tail. They are 9 to 10.5 inches long, and have a wingspan of 15 to 18 inches.

Red-bellied woodpeckers are noisy birds, and have many varied calls. Calls have been described as sounding like churr-churr-churr or thrraa-thrraa-thrraa with an alternating br-r-r-r-t sound. Males tend to call and drum more frequently than females, but both sexes call. Often, these woodpeckers "drum" to attract mates. They tap on aluminum roofs, metal guttering, hollow trees and even transformer boxes, in urban environments, to communicate with potential partners. Babies have a high-pitched begging call of "pree-pree-pree" They will continue to give a begging call whenever they see their parents for a while after fledging.

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