You hear him before you see him. That rolling churr cutting through the woods, unmistakable once you know it, and then the drumming, steady and resonant against a hollow trunk somewhere above your head. And then you find him and you gasp a little because that red is so much more vivid than you expected. That barred black and white back. That absolute confidence. You stand there looking up at him for a long moment before he notices you, and when he does he simply moves to the other side of the trunk as if the interruption was your fault, which honestly it was.
The Red Bellied Woodpecker
The red bellied woodpecker has a naming problem and he has had it since 1729, when the English naturalist Mark Catesby first described him and gave him that name in his book on the natural history of the Carolinas. The issue is that his belly is barely red at all. There is a small pale reddish tint on his lower underside, difficult to see even when you are holding the bird, which early ornithologists were doing because that was how they studied birds back then. The name stuck. Meanwhile the bird has a blazing orange red crown and nape that runs the full length of his head and is impossible to miss from fifty feet away. He knows. He has always known.
There is a closely related woodpecker called the red headed woodpecker whose entire head is a solid brilliant red, which is presumably why our bird got the consolation prize name instead. When scientists first collected specimens they held them close, noted that small reddish patch on the belly, and the red bellied woodpecker received his default name. Nobody has corrected the record since.
What he lacks in accurate naming he more than makes up for in personality and capability. His most common call is a shrill rolling churr given by both sexes, along with a gruff coughing contact call between mates and a throaty growl exchanged when birds are close together. Drumming is the woodpecker equivalent of singing, and male red bellied woodpeckers drum at roughly 19 beats per second. They have been known to seek out metal surfaces specifically because the sound carries farther, which means somewhere out there a red bellied woodpecker has discovered that your rain gutter is an excellent instrument and has strong feelings about sharing this information with the whole neighborhood at six in the morning. Their barbed tongues can extend up to two inches beyond their beaks to extract insects from deep inside bark, and they cache food in crevices and remember exactly where they put it. They are not to be underestimated.
Meet Clarence
Clarence lives on a vase shaped like a section of old bark, the surface etched with the long vertical grain of a well aged tree trunk. He clings to the center of it the way red bellied woodpeckers do, body parallel to the wood, head turned slightly as if he has just heard something interesting. His feathers are carved in careful detail, that barred ladder back pattern rendered in oxidized sterling silver, the textures deepened so every scale and feather reads clearly. At the base of the vase a cluster of ivy leaves spreads across the bottom edge, grounding him in the forest floor the way a real tree would be.
The opening at the top is wide enough to hold a small arrangement of whatever you find on a walk. Dried grasses, a twig of red twig dogwood, a fern frond, a sprig of dried lavender. The vase is not meant to hold water, because water and sterling silver are not friends and also you would get wet, neither of which is fun. But it is very much meant to be filled with tiny found things, and the bark shaped body makes it look completely natural holding whatever the season offers.
The pendant hangs on a 20.5 inch sterling silver loop chain with a lobster claw clasp that can be moved to different links if you prefer a shorter length.
The Craftsmanship
- Pendant: approximately 2 inches tall by 1 inch wide
- Material: sterling silver throughout, oxidized
- Chain: 20.5 inch sterling silver loop chain
- Clasp: lobster claw, adjustable
- Edition: one of a kind
One of a Kind
There is only one Clarence. This bark, these feathers, this particular butterfly minding her own business at the base of the vase: they exist once. When he finds his person he will not be made again exactly like this.
A Note from Tamara
I have a soft spot for birds that have been wronged by history and the red bellied woodpecker has genuinely been wronged by history. That red head deserved better. I made this vase because I wanted to carry a little of that bark textured forest energy around with me, that feeling of standing under a tree listening for the churr and the drumming and waiting for the flash of red. I hope whoever wears Clarence feels that same pull to stop and look up every time they hear something moving in the trees above them.
Shipping
Your Clarence is finished, packaged safely, and will be on his way to you within 3 to 5 business days.