Rare head-on video of Red Bellied Woodpecker taking flight. It flies right at the camera from the nest box revealing its athletic undulating flight pattern with big rapid wing beats as it drops and then rises to the top of its pattern like a bullet as it passes my left ear.
A Red Bellied Woodpecker couple are house hunting and checking out our Woodpecker Nest Box. The male seems keen on looking inside and checking it out further, but the female is checking out the outside and the neighborhood and is seemingly unimpressed and abruptly takes off with Mr. Woodpecker in close pursuit. A number of Red-Bellied woodpeckers have been checking out the house which sports a built-in video camera so they can stream their family life on the web, but no serious offers yet!
A male Red-Bellied Woodpecker performs a very thorough inspection of the Woodpecker Nest Box I installed last year and seems to give it his seal of approval. He knocks on the walls and roof and it sounds nice and solid - a good place to raise a family. I have a camera inside the nest box this year and hopefully they will make a nest there this season and raise their young. The squirrels have shown no interest in it this year so maybe they will leave the woodpeckers alone - I think that is why the woodpeckers failed to use it last year.
Our Red-Bellied Woodpeckers decided not to nest in our Woodpecker nest box last spring despite trying it out thoroughly. I think they instinctively knew the location was not perfect. The problem was it was exposed to squirrels - and in the months since they have made it into a "squirrel nest box" by chewing right through two 3/4 inch boards. You will see the result at the end of the video! The only thing that can keep squirrels out of a nest box is a metal plate over the opening - maybe
Here is a Mourning Dove who wont give way to a male Red-Bellied Woodpecker accustomed to having his space. The Dove is peace-loving bird, but she was there first! More HD videos every week. Please Subscribe at: http://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=MyBackyardBirding
Cardinal with the classic "feeder chirp" followed by a Male Red-Bellied Woodpecker paid a morning visit to the feeder Sunday. Two of my favorite backyard birds!
We've had such good luck with Stovall Screech Owl Nest Boxes we though we'd try one of their Woodpecker "Houses" or nest boxes as we have seen woodpeckers occasionally visit the bird feeders. We put up a Woodpecker Nest Box back in early December and lately a very large and attractive male Red Bellied Woodpecker has been checking it out - literally inspecting it. Its interesting to observe how careful he is to check out the inside the box before going to far in as his self-preservation instinct says - make sure its safe before committing. He seems to have a very critical eye for construction quality and quite the personality. We are hopeful he will call it his own and find a mate and start a family in the box this spring. The woodpecker nest box is smaller than a Screech Owl nest box with the most notable difference being a much smaller entrance hole. There is nothing more gratifying in birding than to put up a shelter for a specific bird species and then have success at getting them to nest. We'll see how things progress this winter and hope they decide to move in to the new house.
