The arrival of Valentine’s Day tends to direct our attention to that certain special someone in our life who stands out as being particularly important in the realm of amore. For me, that certain special someone is my beautiful wife, Susan. I have a tendency to dote on her, but for this year’s celebration we decided to do something dramatic. On Valentine’s Day itself we will board a plane bound for the Cayman Islands and we will spend an entire week soaking up the warmth of the tropics with each other.
This is an especially attractive idea given the weather that we have had in recent weeks. We find ourselves in the middle of what I am going to characterize as a good old-fashioned winter with temperatures remaining below freezing for weeks on end. But let’s be real here for a moment: below freezing is one thing, but below zero is quite another thing altogether.
In the beginning of 2025, we found ourselves dealing with some sort of participation event every weekend for months. In the winter of 2025-26, we seem to be beset with subzero temperatures weekend after weekend. There’s no doubt about it, it’s cold out there.
The thing that is particularly interesting about this, at least to me, is the fact that the days are getting noticeably longer. The afternoon hours are staying lighter longer with every passing day and this is having a noticeable effect on the birds that have to live out there and endure the cold. The increasing periods of daylight are having a major impact on bird behavior. Here is the most sciency, jargon-rich explanation of this effect imaginable:
“Increasing light levels in spring trigger significant neuroendocrine changes in birds, driving reproductive development, song, and migration. As days lengthen, light penetrates the skull, stimulating deep-brain photoreceptors in the hypothalamus to release gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH), which causes gonads to mature for breeding. This mechanism, often involving VA-opsin or melanopsin, directly synchronizes breeding with food availability.” In simple terms, the birds are waking up from their winter survival mode and they are already starting to think about the breeding season.
This is certainly the case with the wonderful pair of red-bellied woodpeckers (Melanerpes carolinus) that live in and around my yard. Weekend after weekend, semi-trapped in my home due to the cold conditions outside, I have been waiting, watching and listening to the birds that come to my feeders. The local chickadees and titmice are starting to sing, but I have really noticed the increased vocalizations of the red-bellied woodpeckers.
Last weekend brought an additional surprise, which was the appearance of a second adult male. Normally, I see only one member of a pair at a time, but last weekend I saw a male and female together (clearly very interested in one another) and then a second male appeared, which triggered an aggressive response from the other male. Love does jazz things up!
The red-bellied woodpecker is a species that was not present during the years of my youth. I was born in 1968 and that seems to have coincided with the first appearance of the species in the area around Amherst and Pelham in 1967 and 1969. It wasn’t until 1977 that an actual breeding pair was found, but the species wasn’t really “common” until the 1990s. I didn’t see my first red-bellied woodpecker until 1996, but today the species seems to be everywhere as it continues to expand its range northward (the result of climate change). The species name “carolinus,” definitely suggests that this is a bird from a bit further south than Massachusetts.
I am definitely a person that is contributing to this range expansion because I am providing a large and sustained food supply for the birds right outside my kitchen window. It seems like every woodpecker within flying distance of my house will descend upon my feeders in an attempt to find enough food to keep their little biological engines running. This is certainly true of the woodpeckers, but lately the bounty has also resulted in some interesting intraspecific behaviors. As adult males get more and more “wound up” by the hormones that are flooding into their systems, their territorial instincts are going to result in more and more conflicts. Singing and chasing are already starting to increase, all of it fueled by roasted peanuts in the shell.
Susan has picked up my habit of giving the birds in our yard names, which is a predictable result of noticing and caring about them. The male has been named Sid Vicious, because of the bright red feathers on top of his head. The female has been named Nancy Spungen, who was Sid’s girlfriend. While the humans that inspired these names were a bit “off the rails,” Sid and Nancy are cherished members of the avian community that lives in our yard.
If you find yourself “stuck” inside on one of our cold winter weekends, consider plunking down in a nice, soft seat with a warm beverage and spending a little time gazing out at the scene outside.
If you have birdfeeders, then you will likely see a host of “hungries” that have descended upon the food that you have provided and among the multitude you may notice a red-bellied woodpecker. Pick up a pencil and attempt a quick sketch. If you have some talent, you might even attempt a painting. It will be a great soothing exercise and you may find your own mood improving as the days get longer and longer.
Bill Danielson has been a professional writer and nature photographer for 28 years. He has worked for the National Park Service, the US Forest Service, the Nature Conservancy and the Massachusetts State Parks and he currently teaches high school biology and physics. For more information visit www.speakingofnature.com, Speaking of Nature on Facebook, or the Speaking of Nature Podcast.