Status: Endangered (35 FR 8495; June 2, 1970). Critical habitat has not been designated.
Description: The red-cockaded woodpecker averages about 7.25 inches (20 cm) long. It has a
black-and-white barred back and a solid black cap and nape. It has prominent white cheek patches. The
male has a tiny red tuft behind the eye, near the ear (the cockade). The call notes of the red-cockaded
woodpecker are raspy and nasal sounding.
Life History: Red-cockaded woodpeckers live in extended family groups known as clans. Clans
consist of a single breeding pair, young birds, and sons of the breeding male. The entire clan helps in
territory defense. The breeding male can live for several years. When he dies, one of his sons typically
inherits the breeding territory. Red-cockaded woodpeckers breed from late April to July. The breeding
female lays between two and four eggs, and all members of the clan help incubate and feed the young.
Red-cockaded woodpeckers eat various insects, spiders, and other invertebrates found under bark and in
the dead limbs of trees.
Habitat: Red-cockaded woodpeckers live in old-growth (60-70+ years) loblolly, shortleaf, and
especially slash and longleaf pine forests. Nesting and roosting cavities are made only in living pine trees
over 60 years old. These trees produce large amounts of resin around the woodpeckers' cavities. The
resin is thought to discourage potential predators, such as the black rate snake, from climbing the tree and
attacking the woodpeckers. Ideal colony sites are located in parklike stands of pines with little or no
understory growth. Foraging habitat of the woodpecker includes extensive pine or pine-hardwood forests.
Fire plays an important part in maintaining red-cockaded woodpecker habitat by eliminating hardwood
undergrowth.
Distribution: The historic distribution of the red-cockaded woodpecker included the southeastern
United States. They ranged from Florida north to Virginia and west to eastern Texas and Oklahoma. In
Oklahoma, they were restricted to the shortleaf pine area of southeastern Oklahoma. The red-cockaded
woodpecker once occupied Bryan, Latimer, LeFlore, McCurtain, Pittsburg, and Pushmataha counties.
The current distribution in Oklahoma includes only a limited area of McCurtain and Pushmataha counties.
The Pushmataha colony was inactive in 1992.
Causes of Decline: Red-cockaded woodpeckers have declined primarily due to the loss of
suitable habitat. Short-term-rotation timber management of private and public forests has eliminated much
of the old-growth pine forest necessary to maintain healthy woodpecker populations.
Recovery Needs: The top recovery tasks for the red-cockaded woodpecker include continued
monitoring of individual populations, protecting and managing woodpecker habitat on public and private
land, and continued research of red-cockaded woodpecker ecology.
Other information: The construction of artificial cavities shows promise as a useful management
technique for establishing new colonies. The original recovery plan was revised in 1985.
