RED-BELLIED WOODPECKER

Red-bellied Woodpecker (Melanerpes carolinus)

Permanent resident.

A common species statewide in a variety of wooded habitats. As with many forest nesters, there is a direct correlation between the size of the woodlands and the numbers of red-bellies present.

Along Big Darby Creek in central Ohio this was the second most common woodpecker found after the downy woodpecker.

Forested riparian corridors along Big Darby in excess of 100 feet wide on both banks had three times as many red-bellies as did those corridors which were less than 100 feet wide on a side.