Red-cockaded Woodpecker

Whew! We just got this photo in time -- The babies just fledged!

Adjacent to The Woodlands is Jones State Forest, home to the very endangered Red-cockaded Woodpecker. This is a very endangered bird (1% of original population remains). We were lucky to get a few photos of this beautiful bird feeding the young just before they left the nest this year.

It's no wonder that they are endangered -- how fussy can you be?! The Red-cockaded Woodpecker makes its home in mature pine forests, preferably longleaf pines. While other woodpeckers bore out cavities in dead trees where the wood is rotten and soft, the Red-cockaded Woodpecker is the only one which excavates cavities exclusively in living pine trees. The older pines often suffer from a red heart rot which attacks the center of the trunk, causing the inner wood, the heartwood, to become soft. Cavities generally take from 1 to 3 years to excavate! The woodpecker drills a number of small holes around the nest, allowing sap to run as a protection against snakes. (The tree can look like a dripping candle! - a great way to spot their nest). These cavities provide homes later for a number of other birds and wildlife.