Red Cockaded Woodpecker

Description:

Quite rare in Virginia. The biologist who took us to this nest told us this was only 1 of 58 red cockaded woodpeckers in Virginia!

Habitat:

Nesting exclusively in live pine trees, the bird requires mature trees with soft heartwood for excavating nest cavities.

Notes:

"Piney Grove harbors Virginia's last breeding population of red-cockaded woodpeckers and the northernmost population in the U.S. Listed as endangered in 1970, this charismatic black-and-white woopecker gets its name from a barely visible speck of red on each side of the male's cap. Red-cockaded woodpeckers once numbered in the hundreds of thousands throughout the Southeast and up into New Jersey, but the loss of old-growth pine habitat led to a dramatic decline." http://www.nature.org/ourinitiatives/reg...