Red-cockaded Woodpecker

Leuconotopicus borealis (also treated as Dryobates borealis under the eBird/Clements taxonomy; older literature uses Picoides borealis)

Only woodpecker that drills its home into living pines. A specialist that brought the whole longleaf forest back.

Population: ~19,000 mature individuals (~5,000 family groups), per BirdLife/IUCN 2019 global assessment (current as of this check, no more recent IUCN reassessment located); note USFWS/Cornell commonly cite a lower ~12,500-individual (~5,000-group) figure for the same underlying population data
Habitat: Fire-maintained open old-growth pine savanna, strongly associated with longleaf pine, with sparse understory/subcanopy; nests in living pines 80+ years old, often infected with red-heart fungus
Fun fact: Red-cockaded Woodpeckers are cooperative breeders that excavate nest cavities exclusively in living pine trees — a process that can take years — and then peck "resin wells" around the entrance so dripping sap deters climbing rat snakes.
Range: Endemic to the southeastern United States; historically from New Jersey/Maryland and Florida west to eastern Texas and Oklahoma, now reduced to roughly 30 isolated populations across that range, concentrated in South Carolina and Florida
Diet: Primarily ants, beetles, cockroaches, caterpillars, spiders, and other wood-boring insects and their larvae gleaned from pine bark; occasionally fruit, berries, and corn earworms
Size: 0.2 m
Wingspan: 0.375 m
Lifespan: 19 years

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