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These abundant, urban-tolerant, and cavity-nesting insectivores breed in virtually all wooded areas of the state except young pine plantations. Like Louisiana's other woodpeckers, they are least common in the Coastal Marsh Region.
painting by Louis Agassiz Fuertes 1914
female (left) and male (right)
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These cavity-nesting insectivores are widespread forest birds. Although not common, Hairy Woodpeckers are noticed by birdwatchers nearly as frequently as Downy Woodpeckers because the Hairy has much louder vocalizations.
painting by Louis Agassiz Fuertes 1914
male (in female, the red is replaced by black)
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Formerly common in Louisiana's piney woods, the "RCW" has been a victim of the intense harvesting and fire abatement that distinguished the 1900's. Most of the state's 500 or fewer remaining nest sites are in the Kisatchie National Forest, where incidental and prescribed fires maintain open grassland under uncrowded old pines. RCW's excavate cavities in the living tissue of such pines, eventually benefitting other cavity-nesting species. Federally-listed as an endangered species in 1970, RCW's were still listed as of 1999. Landowners like The Nature Conservancy are helping the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service recover the species.
photo Copyright © 1999 by Brian Miller
male or female (red rarely visible); note the resin exuding from wells pecked in this pine