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Project Noah Nature School
Melanerpes carolinus
This male red-bellied woodpecker stayed around our feeder all winter by himself until early March. We were watching him one afternoon and a coopers hawk swooped down and grabbed him. We chased him around the neighborhood and he would drop him and pick him up and drop him again till he finally took off with him.
Spotted on Feb 1, 2009
Submitted on Oct 23, 2011
7 Comments
Oh heartbreaking! Nature can be so cruel.
I'm so sorry about your woodpecker friend.
Sad story...but a splendid bird!
Poor little guy. He was a lovely bird.
It is so hard not to get attached. :(
We were devastated - it was the only bird we really knew and bonded with all winter.
Poor thing. We had a pair of blackbirds that nested in a pyracantha in our yard in England for many years. The male became so used to us that he would hop onto the ground feeder & started eating as soon as I had refilled it - while I was still carrying it across the yard! I came home one evening to find a pile of plucked out blackbird feathers - I felt absolutely devastated.