Status and Occurrence of Red-headed Woodpecker (Melanerpes erythrocephalus) in British Columbia
By Rick Toochin
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Introduction and Distribution
The Red-headed Woodpecker (Melanerpes erythrocephalus) is one of the most spectacular woodpecker species found in North America (Gorman 2014). This species is local and sporadically found throughout its range (Frei et al. 2017). The Red-headed Woodpecker is found breeding in Canada from southern Saskatchewan where it is rare (Smith 1996b), locally found in southern Manitoba (Godfrey 1986), it is rare to uncommon in the summer in Ontario north to Kenora, Wawa, and Sudbury (James 1991c), and extreme southern Quebec in areas bordering the lower St. Lawrence River (Lemieux 1996c).
The Red-headed Woodpecker is found in a variety of treed habitats, typically with a certain degree of openness and the presence of dead limbs or snags for nesting purposes (Frei et al. 2017). Commonly, this may include: deciduous woodlands, especially with beech or oak (Reller 1972), lowland and upland habitats, river bottoms, open woods, groves of dead and dying trees, orchards, parks, golf courses, open agricultural country, savanna-like grasslands with scattered trees, and the forest edge and along roadsides (Degraff et al. 1980, Kahl et al. 1985, Hamel 1992, Rodewald et al. 2005).
Along the west coast the Red-headed Woodpecker is an accidental vagrant. In California, there are 5 accepted records by the California Bird Records Committee (Hamilton et al. 2007). In Oregon, the Red-headed Woodpecker is accidental with a single accepted record by the Oregon Bird Records Committee from Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Harney County on June 21, 1987 (Rogers 1987a, OFO 2016). There are no accepted records by the Washington Bird Records Committee for Washington State (Wahl et al. 2005, WBRC 2016). In British Columbia, there are 6 records for the province (Toochin et al. 2014).
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