Red-headed Woodpeckers-Larimer County

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Denise B.

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Aug 19, 2021, 11:37:45 PM8/19/21

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Submitted on behalf of Andy Goris, who lives in the foothills southwest of Fort Collins. He has had red-headed woodpeckers nesting in his neighborhood for the last couple of years, and provides the following history about them -

"2019: Saw a single Red-headed woodpecker eating insects in our newly constructed raised bed. After the bird left, we inspected the raised bed to see what it was eating (sprouts vs insects). The bed had a rich assortment of bugs crawling on the moist soil, plus some sprouts, so we’re not sure, but suspect it was the all the bugs. We only observed the RHW for a few weeks, and can’t confirm if all of our observations were the same bird.

2020: Saw the Red-headed woodpeckers more frequently, including several observations of 1 juvenile near our feeders later in the summer being fed by a parent.

2021: We’ve seen the pair of Red-headed woodpecker adults frequently (daily) at our feeders since spring. In the spring, we saw them flying back and forth to a hole in a burned tree. We’re now seeing the juveniles frequently, and have confirmed there are at least 4, since today we saw 4 at the same time."

Andy reports that even though the birds are skittish, he and his wife have seen them several times in the last few days at their feeders.

He (and I) thought the birding community would be interested in this Larimer County activity. Andy submitted a report and photos to ebird today (though I don't have the link) and he uploaded pictures to the CFO Facebook page.