The Red-headed Woodpecker and Euorpean Settlement

The red-headed woodpecker's migration during the period before and during the early European settlement was influenced by hard mast crop abundance. A favorite food at that time was the beech nut. This resulted in their migration to the large tracts of beech trees in the eastern US where there were vast forests of beech trees. How-ever during the European settlement these forests were cut and turned into farmland. By the early 1900s this source of food was largely gone.

This abundance of food resulted in the migration of the red-headed woodpecker to these beech forests, regardless of where they had been during the breeding season. Red-headed woodpeckers from Wisconsin, Michigan and Canada would move south to these forests. Red-headed woodpeckers from the upper plains, Minnesota, Iowa and Illinois would often move east to these forests. Red-headed woodpeckers from the east would move west and sometime even southern birds would move north to take advantage of the abundance of beech nuts.
Acorns were also a food source that influenced their movement or non-movement and still is to this day1. The oak savannah‟s were not only their breeding residences, but also would be their non-breeding residences and would attract red-headed woodpeckers from areas where the mast production was low for that year.

During the late 1700s and 1800s, the red-headed woodpecker was a common and widespread species in the Northeast. In the late 1800s, large concentrations of these birds were observed during fall migration in New York and Long Island. Now they are considered to be an uncommon migrant there. Today, only a handful of migrants are observed during migration in Cape May.

When European settlers landed on the shores of the Atlantic Coast, they found a widely varied landscape. While many believe that the entire northeastern United States was covered in mature forest, historical evidence suggests otherwise. Early explorers wrote about vast prairie-like expanses of grassland and open woodlands of park-like quality, and described many early successional plants, shrubs and trees.

They also spoke frequently of a land brimming with wildlife species often associated with early successional landscapes (grasslands, open woodlands, shrub-scrub habitats). Native Americans used fire as a tool to make hunting and traveling easier. Naturally occurring wildfire and fires set by the Indians helped shape the pre-European landscape of North America, which included a mosaic of early successional habitats. The practice of burning forests and grasslands was, and still is, a universal practice among aboriginal people around the world.

As Europeans settled, land-use changes occurred. By the early 1800s, much of the forests had been cut down and early-successional habitats were widespread. As agricultural practices began to change again throughout the 20th Century, early-successional areas were lost as farm fields reverted to forests or subdivisions and shopping malls.