Cardinal woodpeckers have a very distinctive call; a “chittering rattle” as described by one of South Africa’s more prominent bird books.
It is often heard when out in the bush, but the consistency from which the call was coming from a tree near the prominent hyena den in the North, gave rangers enough reason to investigate with their binoculars, which led to the exciting discovery of a nest.
A woodpecker nest is not the rarest thing to find; simply by observing the behaviour of an individual during the breeding season, one can discover where a pair have made their hole in a tree. The great thing about this nest was how low it was, when more often than not the nest cavity – which is excavated by both the male and female – is high up in a tree and not easy to observe.
Ranger John Mohaud captured this fantastic series of shots of the male feeding one of the chicks:
The male woodpecker – identified by his bright red crown – approaches the nest with what looks like a Mabungu grub clamped in his beak. A Mabungu grub is the larvae of the wood-boring Longhorn Beetle.
The chick sticks its head out of the nest, now aware of the male’s approach with food. Both sexes of the Cardinal Woodpecker possess a brown forecrown, but the female has an all brown nape. Chicks of both sexes have dull red in their crown.
The male passes the food item to the chick…
…and the chick retreats back into the nest.
Cardinal Woodpecker chicks generally stay in the nest for just under a month, and will disperse one or two months after fledging. We don’t know exactly how many chicks were in this nest, but most clutches hold two (up to three can be laid).
Nest holes are seldom reused apparently, so it is unlikely we will be seeing this pair nesting here again, but given how small the woodpeckers are and how territorial they are, it is certainly not inconceivable that we could see these two raising chicks again in the future, somewhere close by. Let’s hope their next nest is just as low…
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Amazing find!!!!
Lovely series of detailed pictures, John!
Great sighting. We have quite a few cardinal woodpeckers in the garden, but I have never seen them nesting.
As a birdies I enjoy this blog entry very much. As a matter of fact little Fiona and I we are getting ready to start our once a month walk to the Central Park and early this afternoon to see April the Giraffe for the last time this season. We hope you will update us on the status of the nest. Have a good day.
James, great photos, especially the one feeding the little bird!
Gorgeous bird.
Delightful article and pics. Thanks James. Are the Cardinal Woodpeckers immigrants from overseas? Or locals?
Incredible sequence of photos by John of this beautiful little woodpecker and his chick. Another great learning experience for those of us not familiar with the bird world.
maybe hang a camera trap ??
James those photos are amazing. Hollows for nests are becoming a rarity in Sydney so your woodpecker is very lucky. Bird numbers for those species needing hollows for nests, such as the Laughing Kookaburra, are declining due to the lack of old trees with hollows. Can you follow up on the chick’s progress at a later date? Perhaps when it’s a fledgling?
A nice blog James and John certainly did a great job of taking the series of pics of this beautiful bird. I have a downy woodpecker pair that come to my suet feeder and they are pretty birds. We have a similar woodpecker here with the same markings but they are far larger. They are called pileated woodpeckers. Thank you both for sharing this with us.