Chapter D: E. Brown writes to me

Its nesting cavities may be at any height from 4 feet to
well over 100 feet from the ground. I found a nest 8 feet
up in an 8-inch dead fir stub in a dry open locality. The
female flushed from the nest, and the date was just right
for fresh eggs, May 6. The cavity was carefully opened. It
was 16 inches deep and contained a single egg. This egg
was so fresh and the shell so clear that the yolk could be
plainly seen. The cavity was carefully repaired with bark
from the stub, held in place with black thread. Both birds
were near all this time, complaining loudly. I returned in
five days. The bark was still in place, but the egg was
gone. The dust from the decaying stub, where the egg had
been, was very dry, and I am of the opinion that the parent
bird had removed the egg.

G. D. Sprot has sent me a beautiful photograph (pl. 4) of a nesting site of this woodpecker in a dead alder stump in a coniferous forest clearing, near Mill Bay, Vancouver Island, taken May 23, 1928.

Dawson and Bowles (1909) say:

The nest of this bird is usually placed well up in a small
dead fir tree in some burn or slashing on dry ground.
It is about ten inches deep and has no lining save fine
chips, among which the crystal white eggs, four or five in
number, lie partially imbedded. Incubation is begun from
the last week in April to the last week in May, according
to altitude, and but one brood is raised in a season.
These Woodpeckers are exceptionally valiant in defense of
their young, the male in particular becoming almost beside
himself with rage at the appearance of an enemy near the
home nest.

S. F. Rathbun sends me the following note on a Harris’s woodpecker that made an attempt to dig a nesting hole in a small young fir topped about 10 feet up: “The tree had been cut off so that it could be used as one of the supports of a cross piece to which a swing was attached. The woodpecker began to dig a hole in the topped upright, and the owner of the place called me up and wanted to know what the bird was and what it was up to. I told him all about it and suggested that he keep away from the stub. Two weeks later, I asked him how the bird was getting on. He said at first the bird was busy digging away every day, but of late seemed to have something the matter with it, for ‘lately every day it just sat with its head sticking out of the hole and did no work on it.’ I cut a piece from the edge of the entrance and quickly found out. When the crossbar for the swing had been nailed to the sapling, a 10-inch spike was used to hold it; and this had gone nearly through the sapling. The woodpecker ran into this spike, as it was digging the hole, after progressing 6 inches or so downward. It did not seem able to go around the spike, although it had enlarged the cavity an inch on each side of the heavy nail and had cut away the wood for 2 inches or more below the spike. But the job proved to be too much for the bird, and it eventually gave up and disappeared. I told my friend to pull the spike and maybe next year the bird would be back. He followed my suggestion, and, the following spring, a Harris’s woodpecker showed up, dug a hole in the stub, and raised its young. This was repeated the next spring after, and then no return of the bird. So quite likely it may have been the same woodpecker.”

_Eggs._--Harris’s woodpecker apparently lays four or five eggs, probably seldom fewer or more. Bendire (1895) was evidently unable to locate any properly identified eggs of this race, and I have not fared much better. The eggs are probably indistinguishable from the eggs of other hairy woodpeckers of similar size. The measurements of 34 eggs average 25.29 by 18.91 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure =27.9= by 19.6, 25.46 by =20.32=, =22.86= by 18.29, and 23.5 by =17.5= millimeters.

_Food._--J. A. Neff (1928) says:

A total of 57 stomachs of hairy woodpeckers were taken for
the present study, over three fourths of them of the Harris
type. The months were represented by fairly even numbers of
specimens. Analysis of these stomachs shows a considerable
variation from the results of Professor Beal’s California
studies. The total animal food averaged 82.00 percent,
while vegetable matter made up the other 18.00 percent.

The larvae of wood-boring beetles, Cerambycids and
Buprestids, composed 49.00 percent of the total. This total
is unexceeded in Federal studies of birds. Since these two
groups of borers include species doing enormous damage to
both forest and ornamental trees, as well as to orchards,
this item of food alone almost settles the question of the
utility of having woodpeckers. * * *

The vegetable food was of little value economically.
Fruits, of small wild varieties, totaled 6.00 percent, and
seeds, mostly of coniferous trees, averaged 12.00 percent.

_Behavior._--Taylor and Shaw (1927) made the following interesting observation:

As is well known, western Washington is a region of copious
rainfall. During the frequent downpours one can not help
speculating on the manner in which the different birds and
mammals avoid injury from the damp and chill of the storm.
The thick foliage of firs and hemlocks is well suited, in
many instances, to serve as a thatched roof: and in the
deep woods there are many big branches and large logs under
which birds--and mammals too--find dry retreats. During
the heaviest rain of the summer a Harris woodpecker was
frightened from its shelter beneath a huge log in the heavy
forest of Tahoma Creek Canyon. Here the bird was keeping
perfectly dry. One can imagine its displeasure at being
driven out from its comfortable refuge into the drenching
rain.

_Winter._--D. E. Brown says in his notes: “Early in fall Harris’s woodpecker very often excavates a cavity that is its winter home. It can be found there every night and quite often in the daytime on stormy days. It is not always secure in this retreat. Such a cavity was made in a partly dead stub, about 20 feet high, just back of my house. Frequent visits were made to find out how much the nest was used. At first the bird, a male, would fly to a nearby tree when I rapped on the stub, but soon it contented itself with just coming to the opening. One time, while I was in plain sight of the stub, a western pileated woodpecker alighted at the cavity and proceeded to open it up, which it did clear to the bottom in less than three minutes. It had taken the Harris about a week to dig it out.”

Dawson and Bowles (1909) say: “The Harris woodpecker visits the winter troupes only in a patronizing way. He is far too restless and independent to be counted a constant member of any little gossip club, and, except briefly during the mating season and in the family circle, he is rarely to be seen in the company of his own kind.”

DRYOBATES VILLOSUS HYLOSCOPUS Cabanis and Heine

CABANIS’S WOODPECKER

HABITS

The hairy woodpeckers of the coast district of California from Mendocino County southward, the mountains of southern California, and the southern Sierra Nevada, as far east as White Mountains of California, are now known by the above name. This race is somewhat smaller than _harrisi_ and decidedly smaller than _orius_, its neighboring races to the northward; its under parts are much lighter colored than in _harrisi_; these parts are described by Ridgway (1914) as “dull grayish or brownish white or pale drab-grayish or buffy grayish.” This and the Sierra woodpecker (_orius_) seem to form connecting links between the dark-breasted _harrisi_ and the white-breasted Rocky Mountain forms, _monticola_ and _leucothorectis_, both of which are decidedly larger also.

Dr. Joseph Grinnell (1908) says of the distribution of this woodpecker in the San Bernardino Mountains in southern California: “This was the most widely distributed species of woodpecker in the region, occurring throughout the timbered portions, irrespective of zones. It was common from Santa Ana Cañon to the summit of Sugarloaf, 9,800 feet, and nearly to timber line on San Gorgonio peak. On the desert side the species was noted as low as Cactus Flat, 6,000 feet, where one was seen in some golden oaks in a ravine, August 16, 1905.”

_Courtship._--The drumming of woodpeckers in the spring on some resonant limb or tree trunk is an important part of the courtship urge, as a warning to any rival, or as a call to a possible mate. Dr. Grinnell (1908) shows how the manner of drumming may also serve as a recognition call; he says: “The resonant rattling drum identified this species from any other of this region. Near Dry lake, 9,000 feet altitude, dead tamarack pines were selected for this purpose, and on June 23, 1905, I listened for many minutes to a remarkable demonstration of this kind. Different branches were tattoed in rapid succession, so that a xylophone-like variety of tones was produced, very impressive and far-carrying through the otherwise quiet forest.”

_Nesting._--Major Bendire (1895) writes:

In California Cabanis’ Woodpecker is common in the
mountains, but in the lowlands in the southern part of this
State Mr. F. Stephens considers it a rather rare summer
resident. He found it breeding in a cottonwood tree, near
San Bernardino, on March 21, 1885. Mr. Lyman Belding took
several nests of this subspecies in Calaveras County, in
the Sierra Nevadas; in one, found on June 6, 1879, which
had been excavated in a dead pine stump, 12 feet from the
ground, the eggs, three in number, were on the point of
hatching. In his notes he says: “I scared the female from
it and prevented her return by inserting a stick, the end
of which protruded for several feet. When she found she
could not enter she gave several cries, which brought
the male, who hopped up and down the stick a few times,
striking it with his bill and screaming angrily, pausing
occasionally, and apparently deliberating on the best
method of extracting it.” Another nest, found by him on
July 10, 1880, was located only 3 feet from the ground, and
contained young which were still in the nest on the 20th.
Mr. Charles A. Allen informs me that along the Sacramento
River, in California, it breeds in sycamores and willows,
but that it is not common there.

_Eggs._--Major Bendire (1895) says:

The number of eggs laid to a set varies from three to six;
those of four are by far the most common; sets of five are
only occasionally met with, while sets of six are very
unusual. * * * The eggs lie on the fine chips left in the
bottom of the cavity, and are occasionally well packed into
these, so that only about one-half of the egg is visible.
They resemble the eggs of _Dryobates villosus_ in color,
but those of an elliptical ovate shape are more common than
the oval and elliptical ovals, averaging, therefore, more
in length, while there is proportionally less difference in
their short diameter.

The measurements of 23 eggs average 24.49 by 18.38 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure =25.7= by 18.2, 24.2 by =19.7=, =22.8= by 18.1, and 24.9 by =16.5= millimeters.

_Young._--Mrs. Irene G. Wheelock (1904) says: “Both sexes share the labors of excavating, brooding the eggs, and feeding the young. Incubation lasts about fifteen days, and the young remain nearly four weeks in the nest, being fed most of that time by regurgitation. After leaving they are fed by the parents for at least two weeks, and usually return to the nest at night to sleep.”

_Food._--W. Leon Dawson (1923) writes: “Nearly half of the Cabanis Woodpecker’s food consists of the larvae of wood-boring beetles (the _Cerambycidae_ and _Buprestidae_); and of the remainder the caterpillars of various injurious moths form a large per cent. Wild raspberries and blackberries are eaten in summer, and certain hardy fruits, such as cornel berries, acorns, and the pits of the islay, or evergreen cherry (_Prunus ilicifolia_), eke out the winter sustenance.”

Referring to its manner of feeding, Milton P. Skinner says in his notes: “On August 10, 1933, I saw a Cabanis working on both the trunk and the limbs of a small Douglas fir. It worked all around a horizontal limb and really seemed to be under the limb more than above. It also worked on upright branches as well. I have also seen a Cabanis feeding on the bark of a lodgepole pine. One day I found one on a dead black oak, scaling off dead bark to get at the insects beneath. So far as I can tell, these birds, in the Sequoia National Park, seem to prefer to pick food from the surface and furrows in the bark, and do not bore into the bark and wood as much as other woodpeckers. During my work among the Big Trees, I noticed that these birds seem to avoid the sequoia’s bark; but at one place I found a living tree with many holes bored in the old wood of its charred base, where it was unprotected by bark.”

_Behavior._--Mr. Skinner’s notes say that “this woodpecker has quite a few mannerisms of its own. One, seen flying across a meadow, went first to the limbs of Douglas firs, then to a small dead limb of a sequoia, then to the limb of a fir, and then to the trunk of the same fir. It perched lengthwise of limb and trunk each time. And this procedure was followed again and again on different days. Usually the Cabanis perches crosswise on a horizontal limb, especially when resting or preening, but lengthwise on erect, or nearly erect, trunks and limbs when feeding.

“Although this woodpecker almost always flies to the exact spot it selects, its flight through the forest is undulatory. The undulations are due to the fact that it progresses by a series of wing beats. At the end of each series, it seems to actually close its wings and shoot forward with the impetus gained.”

DRYOBATES VILLOSUS MONTICOLA Anthony

ROCKY MOUNTAIN HAIRY WOODPECKER

HABITS

This large, white-breasted hairy woodpecker inhabits the Rocky Mountain region, in the Canadian and Transition Zones, from central British Columbia and Montana southward to eastern Utah and northern New Mexico, and eastward to western South Dakota and western Nebraska. Ridgway (1914) characterizes it as “similar, in large size and whiteness of under parts, to _D. v. septentrionalis_, but with white spots on wing-coverts much reduced in size or number, or altogether wanting.” It evidently intergrades with _septentrionalis_ in Montana and Wyoming and probably with the more western races west of the Rocky Mountains.

Milton P. Skinner tells me that in the Yellowstone National Park it “occurs at all elevations from the lowest at 5,500 feet to timberline at 9,500 feet above sea level, but never far from a tree of some kind. It is a resident bird here but moves down from the mountain heights at the approach of winter.”

Aretas A. Saunders (1921) says of its status in Montana: “A common permanent resident throughout the western half of the state in the mountains. Winters mainly in the valleys in cottonwood groves, but does not breed there. * * * The eastern limits of its range are evidently in the eastern foothills of the mountains. Just what form breeds in the more eastern mountain ranges is not definitely determined. In the mountains this bird has been recorded by all observers. It is common everywhere, and usually the commonest of the mountain woodpeckers.”

_Nesting._--The following remarks by Major Bendire (1895), under _hyloscopus_, evidently refer to this subspecies: “Mr. Denis Gale found it breeding in Boulder County, Colorado, on May 28, 1886, in a live aspen tree, at an altitude of about 8,500 feet. The nest contained five eggs, in which incubation was somewhat advanced. Mr. William G. Smith also reports it as common in Colorado, coming down into the valleys in winter. He says it is the earliest of the Woodpeckers to breed, that it commences nesting in the latter part of April, and usually excavates its holes in old dead pines, frequently at a considerable distance from the ground, and that he has seen full-grown young by June 1.”

J. K. Jensen (1923) says of this woodpecker, in northern Santa Fe County, N. Mex.:

Quite common in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, from 8,000
to 11,000 feet. June 21, 1920, I found a nest thirty feet
up in a large quaking aspen. This tree stands on the edge
of a place where an avalanche has plowed its way down
through the timber on the mountain side, depositing trees
and rocks in a great heap for hundreds of feet around the
tree. The nest contained young, and judging from the noise
they made, were quite well developed. The parent birds were
very noisy.

May 22, 1921, I made my way through four feet of snow to
the same tree. A new nest had been made, and the female
flew off when I was about 150 feet away. I cut into the
nest and found a set of four eggs on which incubation had
just commenced. The altitude at this point is 11,000 feet.
May 26, 1922, I found a nest with young about seventy-five
feet up in an aspen. This was in Santa Fe Canyon at an
altitude of 8,000 feet.

_Eggs._--The eggs of the Rocky Mountain hairy woodpecker are similar to the eggs of other hairy woodpeckers of similar size. The measurements of 33 eggs average 24.89 by 18.49 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure =28.08= by 18.03, 27.0 by =20.1=, =23.37= by 17.78, and 24.38 by =17.27= millimeters.

_Food._--Mr. Skinner says, in his notes, that this woodpecker “seeks its food on the trunks of lodgepole and _flexilis_ pines, cedars, firs, aspens, willows, and even electric-light and telephone poles; it prefers dead and diseased trees and stubs to work on, probably because of more borers and grubs. At Basin, and over 7,000 feet elevation, I found a female where I could watch her, only 5 feet away from the lodgepole trunk on which she was working. She worked down, tapping here and there as she went. Whenever a tap revealed a borer, she scaled off the bark with quick right and left strokes, having a slight lever motion at the end, and always secured from one to six bark-borer grubs. Evidently the tap told her whether it was worth while to search further, for she never made a mistake and performed no useless labor.”

J. A. Munro (1930) writes: “During the winter of 1928-29 a male hairy woodpecker frequently was seen feeding on Virginia creeper berries in competition with several red-shafted flickers. On one occasion the same bird visited an apple tree, attracted by a few apples that still clung to the bare branches. Standing crossways on a branch, in the ordinary position of a perching bird, he rapidly stabbed his bill downward into the top of an apple. After doing this several times he flew to another portion of the tree and repeated the performance.”

DRYOBATES VILLOSUS PICOIDEUS Osgood

QUEEN CHARLOTTE WOODPECKER

HABITS

Dr. Wilfred H. Osgood (1901) described the hairy woodpecker of the Queen Charlotte Islands, as a full species, _Dryobates picoideus_. He says it can be distinguished from all other members of the _villosus_ group by the black markings on the back and characterizes it as “similar in general to _Dryobates v. harrisi_; bill slightly smaller; middle of back barred and spotted with black; flanks streaked with black.” He says that this woodpecker is not abundant on the islands; during a period of over a month spent in active collecting he saw only six, all of which were collected.

I cannot find that anything has been published on the habits of the Queen Charlotte woodpecker, which probably do not differ essentially from those of _harrisi_, to which it is closely related and which inhabits a similar, humid coast environment. There are a number of skins of this race in various collections, but, so far as I know, no authentic eggs have ever found their way into any American collection. Very little exploration has been done in the interior of the Queen Charlotte Islands, and we know very little about the habits of its birds.

DRYOBATES VILLOSUS TERRAENOVAE Batchelder

NEWFOUNDLAND WOODPECKER

HABITS

Charles F. Batchelder (1908), who discovered and described this race of the hairy woodpecker, characterized it as--

Similar to typical _Dryobates villosus_, but slightly
larger, the black areas of the upper parts increased, the
white areas reduced both in number and in size, especially
in the remiges and wing coverts. * * * _Dryobates villosus
terraenovae_ is much smaller than _D. v. leucomelas_, and
is, of course, even more remote from it in coloring than
from true _villosus_. Between it and _D. v. hyloscopus_
and _D. v. monticola_ there is a striking resemblance in
coloring, but the wide area--occupied throughout its extent
either by _villosus_ or by _leucomelas_--that intervenes
between the ranges of these two Western subspecies and that
of _terraenovae_, precludes the possibility of immediate
intergradation, while the utter dissimilarity of the
climatic conditions of their respective habitats forbids
the supposition that like causes in environment have
developed like characters; apparently this is a case where
superficial resemblances have arisen entirely independently
of climatic influences.

I found the Newfoundland woodpecker fairly common in the heavily timbered valleys of the Fox Island and Sandy Rivers in Newfoundland in 1912. The timber in the flat river bottom and on the islands in the Fox Island River is almost wholly made up of deciduous trees, mainly poplar, canoe birch, ash, mountain ash (which grows to a very large size), and alder, mixed with a few spruces. On the surrounding hillsides the forest growth consists mainly of firs and spruces, with plenty of canoe and yellow birches, poplars, larches, and mountain ashes. The Sandy River runs through a fairly level and heavily timbered region, with forests of large firs, red, white, and black spruces, mixed with some birches and poplars. These two regions were the only places where we found this and the downy woodpecker, nesting in the deciduous trees. It has been observed by others in other places, and doubtless it occurs wherever there is heavy timber, with a fair sprinkling of deciduous trees, mainly along the streams and about the shores of lakes.

I can find nothing noted on its habits that is in any way different from those of the other eastern races. So far as I know, its eggs have never been taken.

DRYOBATES VILLOSUS ICASTUS Oberholser

CHIHUAHUA WOODPECKER

PLATE 6

HABITS

The hairy woodpeckers of the Canadian and Transition Zones in the mountains of northwestern Mexico, southern Arizona, and southern New Mexico are referable to this race. In describing and naming it, Dr. H. C. Oberholser (1911a) characterized it as “similar to _Dryobates villosus hyloscopus_, but bill much smaller, and wing slightly longer. * * * This bird is decidedly smaller than _Dryobates villosus leucothorectis_, as well as noticeably smoky-tinged on the under surface, instead of pure white; and it is in size so very much inferior to _Dryobates villosus orius_, that it is readily distinguishable.”

Harry S. Swarth (1904) says of the haunts of this woodpecker in the Huachuca Mountains, Arizona: “Fairly abundant in the higher parts of the mountains, from 7,000 feet upward. They may be seen almost anywhere in that region, but for breeding purposes, seem to particularly favor the dense thickets of quaking asp.” In 1922, Frank C. Willard and I found them breeding mainly among the tall pines near the summit of these mountains, above 7,500 feet. From here to the summit, about 9,000 feet, the land is rolling, mostly in gentle slopes, and covered with a fine, open, parklike forest of tall pines of two or three species, many of them from 80 to 100 feet high. The many dead, standing trees and stumps offered suitable nesting sites for pygmy nuthatches, Mexican creepers, and Chihuahua woodpeckers. We did not see any of these woodpeckers in the spruce and fir belt, below 7,000 feet.

_Nesting._--On May 7, 1922, in the pine region near the summit of the Huachuca Mountains, described above, we located two pairs of Chihuahua woodpeckers and saw some new excavations in the dead pine stubs, in which they seemed to be preparing to nest, but they evidently had not yet laid their eggs. On May 15 we returned and found two of the nests occupied (pl. 6). The first nest was about 40 feet from the ground in a dead pine stub at an elevation of about 7,900 feet; the cavity was about 15 inches deep and contained four fresh eggs. Farther up, near the summit, at about 8,500 feet, we found the second nest; this was only about 15 feet up in a large dead pine, in a hole we had previously passed by as an old one; but we saw the female enter the hole and stay there, so we chopped it out and found three heavily incubated eggs in a cavity about 12 inches deep. Frank C. Willard (1918) tells of a pair of these woodpeckers that “had nested for several seasons in the dead top of a tall pine. One winter, this broke off and lodged in the top of an adjoining pine. Even with their nest site in this apparently insecure position the woodpeckers were unwilling to leave it, and their new nest was found dug in the same old tree top in its inverted position.”

_Eggs._--The eggs of the Chihuahua woodpecker do not differ materially from those of other hairy woodpeckers of similar size. The measurements of three eggs in the author’s collection are =24.6= by 17.2, =24.5= by 17.7, and 24.6 by =18.0= millimeters.

_Winter._--Mr. Swarth (1904) says: “They do not seem to remain through the winter months; at any rate I saw none during February, 1903 nor did any appear until March 17, when I secured two and saw one other. Ten days later they were quite abundant. The winter of 1902-1903 was quite cold, with a great deal of snow on the ground, and it is possible that with a milder winter they might remain the year through. There does not seem to be any vertical migration on the part of this woodpecker, for I saw none below 7,000 feet, and but very few as low as that.” Bendire (1895), however, writes: “In southern Arizona it does not appear to breed in the lower valleys, but I have shot several near Tucson in winter.”

DRYOBATES VILLOSUS SITKENSIS Swarth

SITKA HAIRY WOODPECKER

HABITS

In the coast region of southeastern Alaska and northern British Columbia we find a race that Harry S. Swarth (1911b) says, in describing and naming it, “differs from _D. v. harrisi_ mainly in the very much paler, less smoky hue of the lower parts, and the more buffy coloration of the nasal tufts. Somewhat like _D. v. picoideus_, but paler colored below, and lacking the barred rectrices of that race.” He says elsewhere (1922):

_Sitkensis_, in its relatively light ventral coloration,
is intermediate between the extremely dark _harrisi_ and
the white-breasted _monticola_. The dark-breasted type of
coloration reaches its extreme development in _picoideus_
of the Queen Charlotte Islands, interposed between the
ranges of _harrisi_ and _sitkensis_. Thus, while specimens
of _sitkensis_ as laid out in trays may be arranged to
illustrate a step between _harrisi_ and _monticola_, the
geographical distribution of the several forms is not in
accordance with this idea. The geographical chains appear
to lie as follows: Starting with the white-breasted races
of the interior of the northwest, _septentrionalis_ and
_monticola_, there is an extension westward on the coast
of a slightly darker breasted race, _sitkensis_. Starting
again with the dark breasted type, _harrisi_, of the Puget
Sound region, and going northward, we reach the extremely
dark colored _picoideus_. Thus, sitkensis and _harrisi_
are really far apart genetically, and the appearance of
_sitkensis_ as a seeming intergrade between _monticola_
and _harrisi_ must be explained on grounds other than those
of such actual intermediate relationship. _Sitkensis_, as
an offshoot of the white-breasted type of the interior,
may have arrived at the humid coast at too recent date to
be yet affected by its surroundings to the extent that
_harrisi_ and _picoideus_ have been; or it may be more
resistant to such an environment. In either case the slight
modification of the clear white breast of _monticola_
produced by the humid surroundings would result in an
apparent intergrade toward _harrisi_.

On the habits of this subspecies, which probably do not differ materially from those of other hairy woodpeckers, I can find only the following brief comment by Joseph Dixon, quoted by Dr. Joseph Grinnell (1909): “At the three lakes back of Mole Harbor I saw more of these birds than at all other places put together. Their slow drumming sounded so similar to the clicking of a telegraph instrument that we dubbed them ‘telegraph woodpeckers’ to distinguish them from the sapsuckers.” So far as I know, the nest of this woodpecker has never been reported. It is probably resident throughout its breeding range.

DRYOBATES VILLOSUS ORIUS Oberholser

MODOC WOODPECKER

HABITS

This race of the hairy woodpecker occupies a rather extensive range in the interior of California, Oregon, and Washington, west of the range of _monticola_ in the Rocky Mountains, north of the range of _hyloscopus_ in southern California, and east of the range of _harrisi_ in the above States. As might be expected, it is more or less intermediate in size or coloration between the surrounding races. Dr. H. C. Oberholser (1911a), who described and named it, characterized it as “resembling _Dryobates villosus leucothorectis_, but larger; lower parts usually brownish white, instead of pure white.”

Grinnell and Storer (1924) say of its haunts in the Yosemite region: “As with most of the allied forms, the present race ranges through several life zones, from the scattered digger pines at Pleasant Valley eastward through the main forest belt to the sparse tracts of Jeffrey pines in the vicinity of Mono Lake. It is nowhere really common, even for a woodpecker; it reaches its greatest numbers in the upper part of the Transition Zone and in the Canadian Zone.”

In the Lassen Peak region, according to Grinnell, Dixon, and Linsdale (1930), “this woodpecker foraged over the trunks and larger limbs of many kinds of trees both in the forests proper and where there were a few trees or restricted tracts of trees in the mainly unforested parts of the section. Much of each bird’s time was spent on coniferous trees, either living or dead ones, but nesting excavations were many of them in trunks of deciduous trees.”

Bendire (1895) says that, at Fort Klamath, Oreg., “it appears to be especially abundant in tracts in which the timber has been killed by fire, and where many of the slowly rotting trunks still remain standing. Such burnings are frequently met with in the mountains, and seem to attract several species of Woodpeckers, presumably on account of the abundance of suitable food to be found.”

_Courtship._--Grinnell and Storer (1924) say: “At Chinquapin, on May 19, 1919, a pair of these woodpeckers was seen going through their courting antics. A male was in a large yellow pine at the edge of a logged-over area, calling almost incessantly. His usual _speenk_ had become _spenk-ter-ter-ter_, a staccato run repeated every few seconds. The female answered in like voice but uttered the trill less often. The male changed his location many times, and after protracted calling on his part, the female flew to the same tree.”

_Nesting._--Bendire (1895) writes:

I took my first nest near Camp Harney, Oregon, on May
29, 1875, in a canyon on the southern slopes of the Blue
Mountains, at an altitude of about 5,000 feet. The cavity
was excavated in the main trunk of a nearly dead aspen,
about 12 feet from the ground. The entrance hole was about
1¾ inches in diameter, and the cavity about 9 inches deep.
It contained four much incubated eggs. The female was in
the hole, and stayed there looking out until I had struck
the tree several times with a hatchet, when she flew off
and alighted on one of the limbs of the tree, uttering
cries of distress, which brought the male, who was still
more demonstrative, hopping from limb to limb, squealing
and scolding at me and pecking at the limbs on which he
perched. At Fort Klamath, Oregon, it was somewhat more
common, and here I took several of its nests. * * * Dead or
badly decayed trees are preferred to live ones for nesting
purposes, and deciduous trees to conifers; it also nests
occasionally in firs and madrone trees.

Milton P. Skinner says, in his notes, that “in the Yosemite National Park, one nested in a living willow trunk about ten feet above the ground.” Grinnell, Dixon, and Linsdale (1930) say that, in the Lassen Peak region, “aspens and cottonwoods, dead at core, seemed to be preferred nesting trees, although other kinds were also used. Nest holes, when in conifers, were made in dead and decaying trunks or stubs.”

_Eggs._--Three or four eggs make up the usual set for this woodpecker. They are indistinguishable from the eggs of other hairy woodpeckers, though Bendire (1895) says that “those of an elliptical ovate shape are more common than the oval and elliptical ovals.” The measurements of 15 eggs average 24.70 by 18.80 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure =26.4= by =20.6= and =21.5= by =16.2= millimeters.

_Young._--Grinnell, Dixon, and Linsdale (1930) write: “Near Eagle Lake Resort on June 12, 1929, an adult was feeding a nestful of young woodpeckers in a cavity three meters up in a yellow-pine stub close to the lake. The nest hole had been freshly cut. Only the female was seen to carry food. The young were large enough to be fed without the parent entirely entering the cavity. When the observer walked near the nest stub the parent became much excited and flew about calling loudly for several minutes. The young birds called when the parent came with food.”

_Food._--Grinnell and Storer (1924) say:

The Modoc Woodpecker forages on both evergreen and
deciduous trees, favoring the latter, perhaps, during
the winter months. In summer it is usually rather quiet,
particularly so as compared with the noisy California
Woodpecker. It gains much of its food in the outer portions
of the bark, where a few strokes of moderate intensity
enable it to secure any insect or grub living near the
surface of the tree.

At the margin of the forest above Coulterville, May 31,
1915, a Modoc Woodpecker was seen foraging in a yellow
pine. The tree in question had recently been killed by the
boring beetles which were common in the western forests
that year. The woodpecker was going over the tree in
systematic manner, working out and in along one branch,
then ascending the trunk to the next branch where it would
repeat the performance. The bird was flaking off the outer
layers of the bark without much evident expenditure of
effort, for little noise of tapping was heard; it was
feeding presumably on the boring beetles or their larvae.

Bendire (1895) writes: “It is one of our most active Woodpeckers, always busy searching for food, which consists principally of injurious larvæ and eggs of insects, varied occasionally with a diet of small berries and seeds, and in winter sometimes of piñon nuts, pine seeds, and acorns. At this season I have often seen this species around slaughter houses, picking up stray bits of meat or fat, and have also seen it pecking at haunches of venison hung up in the open air.”

_Behavior._--Mr. Skinner says, in his notes, that “the Modoc hairy seems very unsociable. One that was feeding on a cottonwood chased a visiting red-breasted sapsucker away from that tree to another, and then from tree to tree. But, when a California woodpecker came to its tree, the Modoc hairy promptly flew away.”

_Voice._--Major Bendire (1895) says that this woodpecker “is very noisy, especially in the early spring. It likewise is a great drummer, and utters a variety of notes, some of which sound like ‘kick-kick, whitoo, whitoo, whit-whit, wi-wi-wi-wi,’ and a hoarse guttural one, somewhat like ‘kheak-kheak’ or ‘khack-khack’.”

DRYOBATES VILLOSUS SCRIPPSAE Huey

LOWER CALIFORNIA HAIRY WOODPECKER

HABITS

Laurence M. Huey (1927) who described and named this woodpecker, characterized it as “similar to _Dryobates villosus hyloscopus_ Cabanis and Heine, but decidedly smaller. In fully adult birds, the dusky white of the breast extends farther down on the breast than does that on examples from the northern mountains.” He gives, as its range, “the pine clad slopes of the Sierra Juarez and Sierra San Pedro Martir, Lower California, Mexico. * * * The range of this southern race does not extend north of the International Boundary, as specimens examined from the mountains of San Diego County, California, are in no way inclined toward the race _D. v. scrippsae_, but are counterparts of typical _D. v. hyloscopus_ from the northern localities. In fact, the only variation that could point toward a ‘blending’ is found in the Sierra Juarez birds, but their average falls so near that of the birds from the Sierra San Pedro Martir that the name proposed herewith should apply.”

This southern race probably does not differ materially in its habits from other hairy woodpeckers, except in so far as it is affected by its environment.

DRYOBATES VILLOSUS LEUCOTHORECTIS Oberholser

WHITE-BREASTED WOODPECKER

HABITS

Northward and eastward from the range of the Chihuahua woodpecker (_icastus_) and southward from the range of the Rocky Mountain hairy woodpecker (_monticola_) lies the range of this white-breasted race of the hairy woodpecker, extending from southern Utah, through Arizona and New Mexico, into central western Texas. It is evidently a smaller edition of monticola, for Dr. Harry C. Oberholser (1911a), in describing and naming it, says that it is “much like _Dryobates villosus monticola_, but decidedly smaller; wing coverts practically always without white spots.”

Dr. Edgar A. Mearns (1890b) says of its haunts in the mountains of northern Arizona:

Breeds commonly throughout the pine belt, often ascending
higher in summer, then preferring aspens to the fir and
spruce woods of higher altitudes. It very rarely descends
to the cottonwoods of the Verde Valley to fraternize with
its smaller relative, Baird’s woodpecker, and only when the
mountain timber is icy or the weather uncommonly fierce;
then it is usually accompanied by flocks of Cassin’s Purple
Finches, Red-backed Juncos, and its boon companions, the
Slender-billed Nuthatches. About the middle of June the
young leave their nests, and soon after make a partial
migration downward towards the lower border of the pine
belt, in common with many other birds that breed at high
levels.

_Nesting._--I can find no references to the nesting habits or eggs of this subspecies, which probably do not differ materially from those of the Chihuahua woodpecker, except that J. S. Ligon told Mrs. Florence M. Bailey (1928) that it nests “generally in small trees in canyon beds.”

_Eggs._--The eggs of this subspecies are apparently similar to those of other hairy woodpeckers. They seem to be scarce in collections; I have been able to locate only two sets of eggs, one set of four and one set of three. These seven eggs show average measurements of 24.66 by 17.91 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure =25.3= by 18.2, 24.6 by =18.6=, =24.2= by 18.2, and 24.6 by =17.2= millimeters.

_Food._--Mrs. Bailey (1928) quotes Maj. E. A. Goldman as follows:

One afternoon I found one pecking at a hole near the ground
in the trunk of an oak. It worked for a second or two and
then paused long enough to look in my direction, beginning
work again immediately. This was repeated several times and
it seemed disinclined to leave the spot, allowing me to
approach to within ten feet, when, instead of flying off,
it slid around to the opposite side of the trunk while I
examined the place and found the hole inhabited by numerous
small black beetles which were running excitedly about.
I moved off a short distance and watched the Woodpecker
return to the hole which seemed to be a rich find.

She goes on to say:

On Chloride Creek in May, 1916, when Mr. Ligon was standing
by a half dead box elder containing a woodpecker nest, the
mother came with her bill for half its length jammed full
of wood ants for the squawking young inside the hole. One
that Mr. Kellogg took at Silver City had recently eaten two
woodboring larvae, six caterpillars, and at least ten moth
pupae, besides other insects and mast.

DRYOBATES PUBESCENS PUBESCENS (Linnaeus)

SOUTHERN DOWNY WOODPECKER

HABITS

Because the Linnaean name _Picus pubescens_ was based on Catesby’s smallest spotted woodpecker, of South Carolina, the southern bird becomes the type race of the species, and the above scientific name, which for many years was used for the more northern bird, is now restricted to the downy woodpeckers of the Lower Austral Zone of the South Atlantic and Gulf States, from North Carolina to eastern Texas. William Brewster (1897) has given us a full review of the changes that have taken place in the nomenclature of the downy woodpeckers of eastern North America, to which the reader is referred.

The southern downy woodpecker, _D. p. pubescens_, is smaller, from the more southern parts of its range decidedly smaller, than the more northern bird, _D. p. medianus_, intergrading with it where the two ranges meet; the under parts are more brownish, and the white markings of the wings and tail will average of less extent.

The haunts of this woodpecker are similar to those of its northern relative, due allowance being made for the difference in environment. It is a more sociable species than the hairy woodpecker and less of a woodland bird.

In Florida, according to Arthur H. Howell (1932), “it occurs alike in pine woods, hammocks, orchards, roadside hedges, and dooryards.”

_Nesting._--Mr. Howell (1932) says that, in Florida, “the nest of the downy is usually dug in a decaying limb of a tree or occasionally in a fence post, and may be anywhere from 5 to 50 feet above the ground.” Harold H. Bailey (1925) says that “for the nesting site, they usually select a dead stub of some live tree, preferring a hard one to a soft or decayed wood. The cavity is drilled each year anew by the birds, the hole being about one and a quarter inches in diameter and eight to twelve inches deep, varying in height from twenty to sixty feet above ground.” John Helton, Jr., tells me of a nest he found on April 20, near Troy, Ala., that “was drilled in a rotten oak limb, which had fallen, been caught, and was suspended among the branches of a pine. It contained three small young and one infertile egg. The mother bird fed the young with great regularity every three minutes.” M. G. Vaiden, of Rosedale, Miss., writes to me of a nest 35 feet up in a dead snag of a pecan tree; the limb was four inches in diameter and the cavity only five inches deep. George Finlay Simmons (1925) says that, in Texas, it nests “10 to 20 feet from ground in small dead deciduous trees, or in old stumps or telegraph poles.”

_Eggs._--The eggs are like those of the northern downy but slightly smaller. The measurements of 25 eggs average 19.43 by 15.24 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure =20.8= by 14.9, 20.6 by =16.7=, and =17.78= by =13.46= millimeters.

_Behavior._--Writing of the habits of these woodpeckers in the sandhills of North Carolina, Milton P. Skinner (1928) says:

They are seen at times with Chickadees, red-cockaded
woodpeckers, Brownheaded Nuthatches, Kinglets and Juncos.
And these associations seem to be actual and usual, and
not temporary and accidental ones as they are between
most birds of different species. The downy woodpeckers
are peaceable little fellows but other birds will impose
on them. I have seen a yellow-bellied sapsucker and a mob
of three or four English Sparrows near Pine Bluff chasing
one about. But downy was a fast flier and outflew all
his tormentors each time. Their flight is undulating and
typical of the woodpecker family. These woodpeckers have
one trait of the Brown Creepers--they prefer to work _up_ a
tree and fly _down_ to the base of the next one.

Perhaps a downy woodpecker does not really work any harder
or faster for its food than any other bird, but somehow it
seems that it does. I found one once on an inclined limb of
a catalpa near the Highland Pines Inn and watched it work
up ten feet in thirteen minutes. During that time downy’s
blows fell good and hard at the average of a hundred
strokes each minute except for a dozen momentary stops when
a big bird flew over, or the downy scratched its head. It
was feeding on small white grubs which it secured at an
average rate of four per minute. * * *

These woodpeckers have the habit in the Sandhills of
digging holes in which to sleep. One found a suitable
place in the end of a dead limb of a large gum standing in
a flooded swamp near Mid Pines Club. This limb had been
broken and left a stub sticking out about five feet long
at right angles to the trunk of the gum and about forty
feet above the ground. It was about five inches in diameter
where the woodpecker began work on it. Work was started
on the under side of the limb about nine inches from the
outer end on February 11, 1927, and the bird dug at it for
forty-five minutes to such good purpose that the hole would
then admit all its bill and half its head. As it worked
it clung head down under the limb. Then it left its work
to go foraging but came back in thirty minutes to resume
work. During the next three days this woodpecker must have
worked steadily for it then had a hole into which it could
completely disappear. But the hole was not large enough nor
deep enough, and the bird was still at work, continually
popping in and out (backward) of its hole; usually when it
backed out it carried a bill full of chips and shavings
that it threw over its shoulder. As it did so, it glanced
once or twice to either side as if to assure itself that
all was well. Then back into the hole for another period
of steady hammering. Apparently this woodpecker worked
thus from thirty minutes to an hour after each half hour’s
foraging trip. Two more days of work completed the sleeping
quarters in a snug cozy retreat. When finished, the hole
was six inches deep, and the limb around it was a mere
shell. The opening being beneath the limb, it was sheltered
from storms, and from any water running into it.

DISTRIBUTION

_Range._--North America; nonmigratory.

The range of the downy woodpecker is =north= to Alaska (Russian Mission, Tanana, and Fort Egbert); southwestern Mackenzie (Fort Simpson and Fort Providence); northern Alberta (Fort McMurray); central Saskatchewan (Big River and Prince Albert); southern Manitoba (Lake St. Martin, Shoal Lake, and Indian Bay); Ontario (Lac Seul, Gargantua, and Sudbury); Quebec (Lake Mistassini, Godbout, and Natashguan River); and Newfoundland (Nicholsville and probably St. Johns). The =eastern= limit of the range extends =south= along the Atlantic coast from this point to southern Florida (Miami, Royal Palm Hammock, and Flamingo). From this southeastern point the species is found westward along the Gulf coast to Mississippi (Biloxi) and Louisiana (New Orleans), thence in the interior to south-central Texas (Giddings and Pecos); southern New Mexico (Mayhill, Cloudcroft, and Silver City); Arizona (San Francisco Mountain and Fort Valley); and southern California (Escondido). The =western= limits extend nearly or quite to the Pacific coast north through California, Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia to Alaska (Sitka, Sitkalidak Island, Bethel, and Russian Mission).

The range as above outlined is for the entire species, which has been separated into six subspecies. The typical form, the southern downy woodpecker (_D. p. pubescens_), is found in the South Atlantic and Gulf States north to North Carolina and Oklahoma; the northern downy woodpecker (_D. p. medianus_) ranges north from Virginia, Tennessee, and Kansas (casually eastern Colorado) north to southern Alberta, Manitoba, Quebec, and Newfoundland; Nelson’s downy woodpecker (_D. p. nelsoni_) ranges southeast from northwestern Alaska to central Alberta and is found casually even farther east; Batchelder’s woodpecker (_D. p. leucurus_) is the Rocky Mountain form and is found from the Kenai Peninsula of Alaska south to New Mexico and Arizona, casually east to Nebraska and on the coast of British Columbia; Gairdner’s woodpecker (_D. p. gairdneri_) is found on the Pacific coast from British Columbia south to northern California; and the willow woodpecker (_D. p. turati_) is confined to California, being distributed rather generally over the State except in the desert areas and the northwestern part.

While the downy woodpecker is not migratory in the accepted sense of the term, and during the months of November and December has been recorded north to Mackenzie (Fort Simpson) and central Quebec (Lake Mistassini), it appears to have some local movements and seems given to a certain amount of wandering after the close of the breeding season. In some of the more northern areas it is commoner in winter than in summer, while in the mountainous regions of the West there is apparently a vertical movement in winter to the valley floors.

While the files of the Biological Survey contain the data for more than 4,600 of these birds that have been marked with numbered bands, many of which have been subsequently recovered, only one of these indicates a flight of any distance from the point of banding. This bird (83460), banded on February 2, 1925, at Elkader, Iowa, was found dead at Balsam Lake, Wis., on October 25, 1925. The distance between the two points is about 185 miles.

_Egg dates._--Alberta: 12 records, May 25 to June 14.
California: 82 records, April 7 to June 9; 41 records, April 24 to
May 13, indicating the height of the season.
Colorado: 9 records, May 4 to June 30.
Florida: 7 records, April 2 to May 14.
Illinois: 16 records, April 3 to June 3; 8 records, May 12 to 20.
New York: 12 records, May 10 to June 2.
Washington: 8 records, May 1 to June 2.

DRYOBATES PUBESCENS GAIRDNERI (Audubon)

GAIRDNER’S WOODPECKER

HABITS

This subspecies of our well-known downy woodpecker is one of those well-marked dark-colored races that occur in the humid Northwest coast region, ranging in the Transition Zone from southern British Columbia to Mendocino County, Calif. It is practically a small edition of the equally dark Harris’s woodpecker, which inhabits the same region. Its characters are so well marked that it was recognized and named by Audubon (1842). Ridgway (1914) describes it as “similar to _D. p. turati_, but color of under parts darker (often light brownish gray or drab), the white of back often tinged with brownish gray.”