I’ve seen Red-headed Woodpeckers before. Besides not seeing them nearly as much as I would have preferred, my problem with these birds has to do with lighting.
Almost every time I have photographed these brilliant redheads, the sun was behind them or it was too dark because the sun was behind too many clouds. So, I was thrilled on a recent visit to Joe Overstreet Road in Osceola County to finally be able to take photos of this bird in beautiful sunshine.
At least in my experiences with Red-headed Woodpeckers, you have to be quick with the photos because they aren’t likely to stay in one spot long. So I snapped away when I had this opportunity.
And here are facts you may not know about Red-headed Woodpeckers, courtesy of AllAboutBirds.org:
- The striking Red-headed Woodpecker has earned a place in human culture. Cherokee Indians used the species as a war symbol, and it makes an appearance in Longfellow’s epic poem The Song of Hiawatha, telling how a grateful Hiawatha gave the bird its red head in thanks for its service.
- The Red-headed Woodpecker has many nicknames, including half-a-shirt, shirt-tail bird, jellycoat, flag bird, and the flying checker-board.
- Pleistocene-age fossils of Red-headed Woodpeckers—up to 2 million years old—have been unearthed in Florida, Virginia, and Illinois.
- The Red-headed Woodpecker was the “spark bird” (the bird that starts a person’s interest in birds) of legendary ornithologist Alexander Wilson in the 1700s.
