Woodpecker Population Is Booming In Wisconsin Red-bellied woodpeckers, such as this male, are well established in Wisconsin and are popular birds at feeders. There is a bird that has become a solid favorite with many birdwatchers, especially those that feed birds, and surprisingly is on the steady increase in Wisconsin, the red-bellied woodpecker. Early bird books, such as "Apgar’s Birds of the United States," 1898, and Frank M. Chapman’s, " What Bird Is That?," of 1935, generally list this bird as a southern species with casual sightings as far north as southern Minnesota. Gradually, like a few other so-called southern species including the cardinal, this fascinating bird’s breeding territory has shifted northward. Today, for example, there is a well-established breeding population of them in Middlesex County in southern Ontario. Christmas Bird Counts (CBC) in our state dating back 60+ years clearly indicate a change in the most commonly counted woodpeckers. According to figures released by Bob Domagalski, CBC coordinator for Wisconsin, years ago it was the downy woodpecker at the top of the list, closely followed by the hairy. By the 1960’s the hairy had taken over first place, and 582 hairies were counted statewide during the 1965 CBC compared to 232 red-bellies. By 1990 the red-bellies were catching up to the hairies, 954 to 1193. By 2000 they were trailing, 1527 to 1572 but by this past year’s count, 2002, the red-bellied woodpeckers surpassed the hairy woodpeckers on the CBC 1942 to 1626. Please realize that red-bellies are considerably more abundant in the southern part of our state than in the north. It appears as though they are here to stay and that they are quite capable of holding their own, especially against the extremely strong competitor for nesting cavities, the European starling. The steadily decreasing population of red-headed woodpeckers may also have something to do with the increase of red-bellies. My very first sighting of a female red-belly occurred while I was in the U.S. Army field artillery at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. I was on bivouac in the spring of 1954 with our atomic cannon group and was able to get close enough to get a fairly good black/white photograph of a very vocal female as she diligently excavated her nest hole in a dead tree stub. The first one I saw in Wisconsin was on Jan. 1, 1963 near the Reynolds Sugar Bush at Casco Junction while on the Kewaunee County CBC. Another was seen on the northern Door County CBC on Dec. 27 of that same year. This time we were sitting in Harold Wilson’s kitchen in Ephraim just before sunrise when a gorgeous male red-belly came to the suet feeder located around five feet from where we sat. Our northern Door Co. winter CBC of 1988 turned up 12 of them. The first red-belly we saw at our new home n the woods was an immature male on Aug. 10, 1983. At first we didn’t know it was a male, but gradually its crown began to reveal more and more crimson from the nape of its head clear down to the base of its bill. A few years later a female showed up on the scene and soon our population began to grow. Exactly how long we continued to see the same male and female coming to our feeders was hard to tell. Unfortunately by that time I had discontinued banding birds. A banded red-belly in Hillsboro, South Carolina was recaptured 20 years and eight months later, then released, still an outwardly healthy bird. That bird, at the time, had attained the greatest known age of any wild American woodpecker. I think back again to my field artillery days at Fort Sill and to the FDC (Fire Direction Control) group with the atomic cannon to which I had been assigned. Our team, using slide rules (before the days of small computers), was responsible for computing the firing settings and directions for the monstrous atomic cannon. Day after day we studied and practiced, working toward absolute perfection and the "big day" when there would be no room for mistakes or faulty computing. Many hundreds of field exercises soon became routine. Believe it or not, this was the beginning of my deep interest in ornithology – as a genuine escape from what was becoming pure drudgery. It also helped take my mind off the instant when the cannons "roared" with enough repercussion to literally lift us off our feet – and imagine how our ears felt! Believe me I was ribbed thoroughly by my army buddies for packing a bird book along with me every time we took to the field with the cannon. But what they never did find out was that I had one on trees, another on flowers, and still another about rocks and minerals. And I thank my lucky stars for those who were responsible for teaching me to take interest in every single form of natural history I encountered. Every day. Every minute. Wouldn’t you, too, be willing to trade a roaring, deadly atomic cannon for a red-bellied woodpecker? I would. Any day! Little wonder I’m a pacifist today and despise the very thought This column appeared in the Door County Advocate on 02/21/2003. © Copyright 2003 Roy Lukes. All rights reserved.