A rare, sublime red-headed woodpecker is wowing visitors at North Park.
Uncommon in Pennsylvania, this unusual visitor to the Pittsburgh area is easy to spot. Elegant and bold, the 8- to 9-inch woodpecker has been described as a flying checkerboard.
Two have been hanging around North Park’s athletic fields near the swimming pool for several weeks, striking birders with its contrasting colors — a blood-red hood, black body with a white breast and large wing patches.
“When you see the bird, you know why it’s a big deal — it’s drop-dead gorgeous,” said Jim Bonner, executive director of the Audubon Society of Western Pennsylvania.
The “Second Atlas of Breeding Birds of Pennsylvania” dubbed the red-headed as the most conspicuous yet rarest woodpecker in the state.
“It’s funny — everyone calls some woodpecker species ‘red-headed woodpeckers’ because they have some red on their heads,” Mr. Bonner said. “This one is truly the red-headed woodpecker and once you have seen it, you can’t mistake it.”
Two have been frequenting the grounds around the Elwood picnic shelter and surrounding areas near North Park’s Pie Traynor Field.
Many visitors, like Warren Barton, of Mars, are spreading the excitement and posting numerous photos to the Friends of North Park Facebook group.
“The beautiful red head sets it apart from other woodpeckers,” said Mr. Barton, who saw the bird for the first time recently.
Amateur photographers visit North Park regularly to capture images of popular wildlife, such as ospreys, bald eagles, deer and great blue herons.
“As the administrator for the 19,000-plus member Facebook page, it is so rewarding to see the public’s reaction to our photographers’ most excellent work. This is one stunning bird!” said Nancy Furbee, an administrator for the Friends of North Park page.
The red-headed is not common in the Pittsburgh area but it is not completely unusual either, Mr. Bonner said.
One of the stately woodpeckers has also shown up at North Park in 2015, 2016 and 2021, according to Mr. Bonner and Audubon’s records. And the species has been sighted at Frick Park, Allegheny Cemetery and Sheraden Park in recent years, he added.
Many of those sightings were picked up during Audubon’s Christmas Bird Count in which volunteer watchers check parks, cemeteries and other public areas.
“There’s some similarity between those locations,” Mr. Bonner said. “They have large, older and slightly mature trees with beechnuts and acorns — the woodpecker’s primary food in the winter.”
They also like open areas.
Indeed, the North Park woodpeckers’ haunt has been around the athletic fields with mature trees and many oaks depositing copious amounts of acorns.
Amateur photographer Jake Juergen Kneiert, of Penn Township, Westmoreland County, watched a red-headed woodpecker clean out an old cavity in a tree and stash acorns in different trees.
“The cool part was when the bird started to cover up its stored food with pieces of bark,” he said.
Mr. Kneiert has seen the bird before and is impressed by its beauty.
“They are pretty hard to miss,” he said. “Airborne in bright sunlight, their red plumage almost has a metallic property.”
The red-headed woodpecker’s population has dropped significantly in recent decades. Comparing field studies from the first Pennsylvania breeding bird atlas, covering 1983 to 1989, to the second atlas, conducted from 2004 to 2009, the bird’s presence has reduced by 46%.
Still, the birds are seen in a remarkably large number of places, Mr. Bonner said.
Nationally, they are more common in the central part of the country and are typically seen in the winter months in the Pittsburgh area, he said.
There is no clear explanation for the population decline, said Jim Kellam, an ornithologist with a specialty in woodpeckers and an associate professor of biology and environmental science at Saint Vincent College in Latrobe.
“Our best guess is that the decline has something to do with habitat loss, especially with regard to the dead and dying trees the species use to excavate nests,” he said.
The woodpecker prefers trees in open areas near waterways and in open woods.
“North Park, with its many open areas adjacent to large, mature oak trees, seems like a perfect spot for these birds to take up residence,” Mr. Kellam said.
There are relatively few locations in the state with large trees in open spaces. Dying trees in suburban and urban areas are usually felled before they are rotten enough to host a red-headed woodpecker nest, Mr. Kellam said.
Since the birds are finding nuts in North Park, could they stay for the winter?
“It’s a big question if they stay or decide to breed,” Mr. Bonner said. “We are in their breeding range, but we normally don’t see it. It’s too early to tell.”
If the birds remain, even just for part of the winter season, he said he would not be surprised.
“Most years, there’s one around the region somewhere. Go out and enjoy it while it is still here.”
First Published: November 16, 2024, 10:00 a.m.
Updated: November 18, 2024, 4:49 p.m.
