The red-bellied woodpecker (Melanerpes carolinus) is a medium-sized bird commonly found across the eastern United States. This species thrives in various wooded habitats, from dense forests to suburban parks, largely due to its highly adaptable feeding strategy. Classified as an omnivore and a generalist feeder, its diet is incredibly diverse and changes based on seasonal availability.
Insect and Arthropod Intake
Animal protein forms a substantial part of the woodpecker’s diet, especially during the breeding season when high-energy food is needed for nestlings. Their prey primarily consists of arboreal arthropods and insects found beneath the bark or within the wood of trees. Common meals include the larvae of wood-boring beetles, ants, flies, grasshoppers, and various species of spiders.
The bird is equipped with specialized anatomy to secure these hidden meals. Its tongue is remarkably long, capable of extending almost two inches beyond the tip of the beak. This cylindrical, barbed structure is often coated in sticky saliva, allowing the woodpecker to efficiently extract beetle grubs and other invertebrates from deep bark crevices and tunnels. While capable of excavating, they often rely on simple probing to locate and pull out prey rather than deep drilling.
Consumption of Plant Matter
Plant materials frequently constitute a large portion of the red-bellied woodpecker’s diet, sometimes making up more than 50% of its intake outside of the nesting season. They consume a wide range of nuts, seeds, and fruits, which become a dietary staple when insects are less abundant, especially in winter. Acorns, hickory nuts, and pecans are highly favored, alongside seeds extracted from pine cones.
The variety of fruits and berries they consume is extensive, including wild grapes, sumac, hackberries, and cultivated items like oranges and mangoes in the southern parts of their range. To access hard-shelled items, the woodpecker will wedge a nut into a crevice in the bark, a fence post, or a rail. This natural vise allows the bird to hammer the food with its bill, breaking it into manageable pieces.
Specialized Feeding Behaviors
The red-bellied woodpecker is highly opportunistic and will seek out specialized food sources. They occasionally prey on small vertebrates, such as tree frogs, lizard eggs, and the nestlings or eggs of smaller bird species. These items are consumed when encountered during foraging, providing a dense source of protein and fat.
The woodpecker also consumes tree sap. While they do not drill the characteristic rows of holes associated with sapsuckers, they readily visit existing sapsucker wells to drink the oozing sap. They are frequent visitors to human-provided feeders, showing a strong preference for high-fat foods like suet, shelled peanuts, and black oil sunflower seeds. They have also been observed drinking nectar from hummingbird feeders.
Hunting and Foraging Techniques
The red-bellied woodpecker uses diverse methods to acquire its varied diet. One primary technique is gleaning, where the bird simply picks insects or seeds off the surface of bark or leaves. They also use their bill to actively probe into shallow cracks and crevices, searching for hidden invertebrates without causing significant damage to the wood.
A technique known as “bark scaling” involves using the bill as a wedge to pry off loose flakes of outer bark, exposing the insects beneath. They also occasionally catch flying insects in the air, a behavior called hawking, and sometimes excavate deeper into decaying wood. A significant foraging behavior is caching, where the birds store surplus nuts, seeds, and even insects in tree crevices.