Chapter C: J. Maynard (1896) states, concerning its habits, as follows (1)

Wilson called the Cockaded Woodpeckers, _Picus querulus_,
and this seems, at first glance, to be a most appropriate
name, for, of all the family, these are not only the most
noisy, but their notes are given in a decidedly fretful
tone as if the birds were constantly in an irritable state
of mind. It must have been upon the impulse of the moment,
however, that the Pioneer Ornithologist gave them the
name of Querulus Woodpeckers, for a close study of their
habits gives a very different impression of them. They
are, in fact, a most jovial class of birds, being almost
constantly engaged in sporting about the tops of tall pines
or chasing one another from tree to tree, uttering their
peevish sounding notes very frequently when in the best
humor. The noise is more noticeable because they congregate
in flocks, and it is quite rare to find even a pair without
other companions. They are also fond of the company of
other members of the family and will even associate with
the Jays, Blue Birds, or Warblers. This gregarious instinct
does not forsake them during the breeding season, for
they build in detached communities. The nests are almost
always in living pines, often thirty or forty feet from the
ground; thus, as the trunks of these trees are covered with
a smooth bark, it is quite difficult to climb them and,
when the nests are reached it is not easy to cut the hard
wood, especially as the straight trunks afford no foot-hold.

In flight, the cockaded woodpeckers resemble the downy
but when they alight they strike the object upon which
they wish to rest very hard. Like the preceding species,
they are also exceedingly agile, moving spirally up the
tall tree trunks with great celerity. Although they will
occasionally alight near the ground, yet they spend the
greater part of their time in the tops of the lofty pines;
in fact, they pass a large portion of their lives there,
for they are seldom, if ever, found elsewhere than in the
piney woods and they inhabit this kind of woodland even to
the extreme southern portion of the main-land of Florida.

The bird is resident throughout its normal range, although David V. Hembree, of Roswell, Ga., in the very foothills of the Appalachian Range, a lifelong student and collector of birds, writes me, “This bird does not breed in this locality. I have never seen a nest. A few are found here, nearly always males in April or May, and I have always thought them to be migrants or strays from their regular range.”

In common with the other small black and white woodpeckers, this species carries the vernacular name of sapsucker and in the main is not differentiated from the others, although one astute lumberman once said to me: “Speaking of sapsuckers, there _is_ a piney-woods sapsucker which is different from the others, leastways he acts different.”

_Voice._--The voice is variously described by different observers-- “harsh and discordant,” “almost exactly resembling the calls of the Brownheaded Nuthatch,” “resembling the yank-yank of a White-breasted Nuthatch,” “they have sharp calls more like loud sparrow alarms than woodpecker notes,” “resembling the querulous cries of young birds.”

The bird is noisy, and its call notes and scolding notes are to the ear of the writer quite radically different, the scolding note being more prolonged, somewhat rolling in character and lower in pitch. There is a definite nasal character to a note that to that extent does resemble the notes of the nuthatch. The note is quite characteristic and when once learned is distinguishable with ease from that of the other small woodpeckers. It resembles more the high note of some small woodwind instrument than anything else, having a definite clarinetlike quality.

Descriptions of bird notes are notoriously variable because of the variability of the human ear, and many attempts at phonetic reproduction of the bird notes are unsuccessful, and when, as is so often done, the attempt is directed to reproduction in syllables, the result is usually a futile and meaningless onomatopoeia.

DISTRIBUTION

_Range._--Southeastern United States; nonmigratory.

The range of the red-cockaded woodpecker extends =north= to northeastern Oklahoma (Copan); southern Missouri (Shannon County); Tennessee (Beersheba and Allardt); and North Carolina (Red Springs and Beaufort). =East= on the Atlantic coast from North Carolina (Beaufort) to southern Florida (Long Pine Key). =South= on the Gulf coast from the Florida Keys (Long Pine Key) to southeastern Texas (Houston). =West= to Texas (Houston); northwestern Louisiana (Mansfield); probably western Arkansas (Mena); and eastern Oklahoma (Tulsa and Copan).

_Casual records._--It seems probable that this species may breed or upon occasion has bred in the vicinity of Raleigh, N. C., as it was noted there several times in April from 1890 to 1898. It also has been reported as seen at Piney Creek, N. C., on July 6, 1932, and on September 12, 1933.

A specimen in the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia was collected near that city in 1861; one in the collection of the Ohio State University was taken near Columbus, Ohio, on March 15, 1872. According to Stone (1909) the collection of George N. Lawrence contained a specimen taken near Hoboken, N. J.

_Egg dates._--Florida: 30 records, April 3 to May 28; 15 records,
April 29 to May 20, indicating the height of the season.
South Carolina: 14 records, April 27 to May 28.

DRYOBATES SCALARIS SYMPLECTUS Oberholser

TEXAS WOODPECKER

HABITS

This is the subspecies that was formerly known as Baird’s woodpecker, _Dryobates scalaris bairdi_, which was then understood to be the resident bird of Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. But when Dr. H. C. Oberholser (1911b) revised the _scalaris_ group, the name _bairdi_ was restricted to the bird of central Mexico, and the Texas bird was described, as a new subspecies, under the above name. It was characterized as follows:

Resembling _Dryobates scalaris cactophilus_, but male
smaller; upper parts lighter, the white bars wider, the
black bars narrower, and with more white on pileum; and
sides of breast less often _streaked_ (mostly spotted). * * *

This new subspecies differs from _Dryobates scalaris
bairdi_, from Hidalgo, much as does _Dryobates scalaris
cactophilus_, except that it is smaller, and still more
extensively white on all the upper parts.

This race reaches its extreme development in Texas; and
specimens from central Tamaulipas and central Nuevo
Leon are not so light above, showing a tendency toward
_Dryobates scalaris bairdi_. They are also somewhat more
smoky below. There is, however, no difference in size
between examples from Texas and Tamaulipas.

The range of the Texas woodpecker extends northward into southeastern Colorado and southward into southern Tamaulipas. George Finlay Simmons (1925) says that in Texas it is “rather general in distribution and in choice of habitat; somewhat open post oak woods and oak upland gravel terraces; mesquite forests; hackberry shade trees in town; mesquite association pasturelands; open woods not far from water; marginal timber along streams. In the hills, cottonwoods and oaks along stream bottoms; wooded slopes of gorges. In winter, leafless city shade hackberry trees.”

The Texas woodpecker is widely distributed and fairly common all over Texas, except in the extreme eastern and extreme western portions; it is a well known and familiar bird, just as our eastern downy woodpecker is in the East; it is locally known as the “Texan sapsucker” or “ladder-backed woodpecker.” Most of its habits are similar to those of the cactus woodpecker, but it seems to enjoy a somewhat more diversified habitat and is more inclined to forage and nest in larger trees; it is not so strictly confined to the deserts and their environs.

_Nesting._--Mr. Simmons (1925) says that the nest is located from “4 to 25, average 12, feet from ground, in rotten stubs or dead and partly decayed branches of oak, mesquite, hackberry, and willow trees, usually alongside lake, river, creek, or ravine; when suitable trees are not to be found, nests in cedar fence posts or telegraph poles along roadsides; when in mesquite tree on mesquite-covered prairie, entrance of cavity on under side of low, drooping limb. * * * Entrance diameter 1.50. Depth of cavity 7 to 8, rarely 10.”

_Eggs._--The Texas woodpecker lays 2 to 6 eggs, Usually 4 or 5, rarely as many as 7. These are indistinguishable from the eggs of the cactus woodpecker. The measurements of 51 eggs average 20.50 by 15.83 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure =22.86= by 15.75, 20.32 by =17.02=, =17.27= by 15.49, and 19.05 by =14.73= millimeters.

_Food._--Mr. Simmons (1925) says that it “searches high up on the knotty trunks of oak trees in open groves for larvae and eggs of injurious wood-boring insects, for the adults of similar as well as other insects, and for weevils and ants.”

_Voice._--Simmons (1925) says that this is “usually a thin, high-pitched, shrill _cheek_; _tcheek, queep_ or _queep-queep_, uttered as the bird gives a hop in its progress up the tree-trunk. Sometimes an incredibly rapid, shrill, ringing, even, not-so-high-pitched _cheeky-cheeky-cheeky-cheeky-cheeky_ or _tchee-dee-dee-dee-dee-dee-dee-dee-dee-deet_; less commonly, _chickp, chickp, chick-chick-chick-chick-chick-chick-chick-chick_. Drums rapidly with its bill on dead limb of tree at any time of year.”

DISTRIBUTION

_Range._--Southwestern United States, Mexico, and British Honduras; nonmigratory.

The range of this woodpecker extends =north= to southern California (Hesperia and Needles); southern Nevada (Upper Cottonwood Springs); southern Utah (Virgin River Valley); and probably southeastern Colorado (Swink). =East= to probably southeastern Colorado (Swink and Springfield); western Oklahoma (Kenton and Hollis); Texas (San Angelo, Kerrville, Boerne, San Antonio, Corpus Christi, and Brownsville); Tamaulipas (Presas and Ciudad Victoria); Yucatan (Chichen-Itza); Quintana Roo (Cozumel Island); and British Honduras (Manatee Lagoon and Ycacos Lagoon). =South= to British Honduras (Ycacos Lagoon); Jalisco (Zapotlan); Nayarit (Tres Marias Islands); and Baja California (Cape San Lucas). =West= to Baja California (Cape San Lucas, San Jose del Cabo, El Sauz, San Fernando, and Cocopah); and southern California (Paint Canyon, White Water, and Hesperia).

The range as above outlined applies to the entire species, which has, however, been divided into 15 or more subspecies or geographic races. Most of these, including the typical variety (_Dryobates scalaris scalaris_), are found only in regions south of the Rio Grande. The four races found in North America are distributed as follows: The Texas woodpecker (_D. s. symplectus_) is found from southeastern Colorado south and east through east-central Texas, to Coahuila, Tamaulipas, and Nuevo Leon. The cactus woodpecker (_D. s. cactophilus_) ranges from western Texas through New Mexico, Arizona, and southern Utah and Nevada south to northern Durango. The western edge of the range of this race cuts across southeastern California and northeastern Baja California. The San Fernando woodpecker (_D. s. eremicus_) is found in northern Baja California except for the northeastern part. The San Lucas woodpecker (_D. s. lucasanus_) occurs in southern part of Baja California north to about latitude 29° N.

_Egg dates._--California: 7 records, April 11 to May 9.
Baja California: 12 records, April 16 to June 2.
Texas: 45 records, April 14 to June 22; 23 records, April 20 to
May 7, indicating the height of the season.

DRYOBATES SCALARIS LUCASANUS (Xantus)

SAN LUCAS WOODPECKER

HABITS

The ladder-backed woodpecker of the southern half of the peninsula of Baja California, Mexico, has long been recognized as a distinct subspecies under the above name. It inhabits the Lower Austral deserts from Cape San Lucas north to about latitude 29° N. William Brewster (1902) says: “Mr. Frazar considers this woodpecker ‘rather common and generally distributed in the cape region, except on the mountains, where it was not met with.’ He found it most numerous about La Paz, but did not see it anywhere to the northward of that place during his trip along the Gulf coast.”

This is a smaller bird than _Dryobates scalaris eremicus_ from the northern half of Baja California; both upper and lower surfaces are lighter in color, with the white bars on the back broader and with the sides of the breast spotted. Mr. Brewster (1902) writes:

All the characters which have been proposed for this
Woodpecker are shown by the large series before me to be
subject to much variation, but this, as in the case of
_Melanerpes angustifrons_, is confined within limits which
do not overlap, if, indeed, they quite reach those of the
bird’s nearest allies. The restriction of the black on the
outer tail feathers is perhaps its best distinguishing
feature, although this is not at all uniform, for many of
my specimens have three complete dark bars crossing both
webs of the outer tail feathers, while in one a fourth bar
is only broken by a small space near the middle of the
feather. The width of the dark bars on the back is also
variable, although these bars are usually wider than in any
of the allied forms. The feet average larger than those
of _bairdi_, but they are by no means _always_ larger. A
difference which I do not find mentioned in descriptions,
but which is shown by my series to be quite as constant as
most of the characters that have been proposed, is that the
white spots on the top of the head are much larger and more
numerous than in _bairdi_, while the red is less vivid and
more nearly restricted to the crown and occiput.

Griffing Bancroft (1930) writes of this woodpecker, in central Lower California, near the northern limit of its supposed range:

This little denizen of brush and thick undergrowth requires
a heavy stand of low cactuses in which to feed and rest.
It occurs from the shores of the Gulf to the mouth of José
María Cañon. Though the rarest of the resident Picidae
it is still fairly common. Its nesting instincts are
quite distinct from other _Dryobates scalaris_. They,
similarly situated, would utilize sahuaro, it is true, but
they would also be prone to add such substitutes as dry
mescal stalks, telephone poles, tree yucca and mesquite
and would, more often than not, chose one of these other
sites by preference. But _lucasanus_ confines itself to
the cardón, at least in the district we were studying,
selecting a single-stalked giant cactus and drilling its
hole very near the top of the plant. As a result the
nest-cavity is rather uniformly twenty feet above ground.
The entrance hole is at the top of a cavity typically five
inches in diameter by fifteen in depth. No foreign material
is brought in for a nest. The eggs lie on the chips that
fall in the process of excavating.

The number of eggs in a clutch is two, three, or rarely
four. The first two weeks in May find almost all the San
Lucas Woodpeckers at the peak of laying. After the middle
of the month nests with young may be expected. The parent
bird will ordinarily flush, especially if the cardón be
tapped, but it is not very nervous about its home. It is
too busy with family duties to waste much attention on
strangers.

The eggs are similar to those of the other subspecies. Bancroft (1930) gives the average measurements of 23 eggs as 22.9 by 18.1 millimeters. The measurements of 10 other eggs average 21.30 by 16.61 millimeters; the eggs, in this series, showing the four extremes measure =24.40= by 18.70, 23.70 by =18.80=, =19.50= by 16.80, and 21.43 by =15.42= millimeters.

DRYOBATES SCALARIS CACTOPHILUS Oberholser

CACTUS WOODPECKER

HABITS

The ladder-backed woodpeckers are quite widely distributed in the Southwestern United States and in nearly all Mexico and in British Honduras, chiefly in the Lower Austral and Tropical Zones. When Dr. Harry C. Oberholser (1911b) wrote his revision of this group, he split the species _Dryobates scalaris_ into 15 subspecies, 9 of which he described and named as new subspecies. Only two of these subspecies are found within the limits of the United States, and only two in Baja California, giving us four on our Check-List.

The name _Dryobates scalaris bairdi_, which was for a long time used to designate the ladder-backed woodpeckers of the United States, was restricted by Oberholser to a Mexican form. He gave as the characters of _cactophilus_, “much like _Dryobates scalaris eremicus_, but smaller, particularly the tail and bill; lower surface lighter, laterally almost always _streaked_ with black; upper parts lighter--the black bars on back and scapulars narrower; wing-quills with larger spots and broader bars of white; outer long rectrices with exterior webs barred throughout with black; black bars on posterior lower surface narrower.”

Ridgway (1914) compares it with _symplectus_, the Texas bird, as “slightly larger, and with black bars on back, etc., decidedly broader.”

The cactus woodpecker ranges, according to the 1931 A. O. U. Check-List, from “central western Texas through New Mexico and Arizona to extreme northeastern Lower California and southeastern California, north to extreme southern Nevada and southwestern Utah, and south to northern Durango.” It frequents the deserts, or the borders of the deserts, and the lower slopes of the mountains in the Sonoran Zone, a hot, dry region where there are no trees of any size and where this is about the only species of woodpecker found. We never found it in the giant-cactus, or saguaro, region, where it seemed to be replaced by the noisy Gila woodpecker and Mearns’s gilded flicker. W. Leon Dawson (1923) says:

Of course it must not be understood that the Cactus
Woodpecker tries to live in the central wastes of the
desert; for however much it may forage over the creosote
and cholla patches, on occasion, it requires something of
more ample girth for a nesting site. Hence its breeding
range is confined to the more fruitful upper edges of
the Lower Sonoran zone, and to the moister bottoms. In
the former situation the dried stalks of the agave and
the lesser yucca (_whipplei_), or of the Joshua tree
(_Yucca arborescens_), and the Mohave Yucca offer asylum.
In the valley of the Colorado, fearing no rivalry from
_D. pubescens turati_, the Cactus Woodpecker is able to
monopolize the willows which grow so rankly along the
lagoons.

Referring to Arizona, Harry S. Swarth (1904) says: “This woodpecker is seldom seen above 5,500 feet, and rarely ventures into the canyons. On the plains below, wherever there is brush or trees, and all along the San Pedro River it is very common, as in fact, I have found it in all similar places I have visited in southern Arizona.”

Swarth says elsewhere (1929):

In southeastern Arizona, east of the Santa Rita Mountains,
the vast areas of prairie land are for the most part
unsuitable to this species. Wherever even a scanty growth
of chaparral has found a foothold, though, the Cactus
Woodpecker is pretty sure to occur, for it does not require
large trees. Along the streams and washes in this same
area, as elsewhere, it does frequent the sycamores and
other larger growths, but these do not form the preferred
habitat. In the lowlands west of the Santa Rita Mountains
this woodpecker is in the surroundings that suit it best.
It does not frequent the giant cactus (I do not believe
that there is a known instance of its nesting in one), but
stays nearer the ground, in cholla cactus, creosote bush,
catclaw or other low-growing vegetation.

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

In southern New Mexico and Arizona it nests sometimes in
the flowering stems of the agave plant and also in yucca
trees, and I have found it nesting on Rillito Creek,
Arizona, in a small dead willow sapling not over 3½ inches
in diameter. The cavity was about 12 feet from the ground
and 10 inches in depth, and the entrance hole a trifle over
1½ inches in diameter. This nest was found on June 8, 1872,
and contained only two eggs, in which incubation was about
one-half advanced; the eggs laid on fine chips. The nesting
sites are placed at various distances from the ground, from
3 to 30, usually from 6 to 14 feet. Dead branches of trees
or partly decayed ones seem to be preferred to live ones.
* * * It nests by preference in mesquite trees, one of our
hardest woods, and it must require a long time to chisel
out a nesting site in one of these trees. While it is true
that the heart is usually more or less decayed, the birds
have first to work through an inch or two of solid wood
which is almost impervious to a sharp ax.

Mrs. Florence M. Bailey (1928) says that in New Mexico the nests are “from 2 to 30 feet from the ground in holes in mesquite, screw bean, palo verde, hackberry, and China trees, willows, cottonwoods, walnuts, oaks, and other trees, telegraph poles, fence posts, and stalks of agave, yucca, and cactus.”

While collecting with Frank C. Willard, in southern Arizona, we found the cactus woodpecker fairly common about Tombstone and near Fairbanks on the San Pedro River. Near the former place, one nest was 6½ feet up in a fence post; the cavity was about 10 inches deep and 3¼ inches in diameter at the bottom; another nest was in a cavity 12 inches deep in the dry stalk of a mescal about 5 feet from the ground. In the valley of the San Pedro River, we found a nest about 12 feet from the ground in a willow stub; and another nest was located in a stump of a willow beside a fence; it was only 6 feet up in the solid part of the stub, and so well concealed behind a bunch of sprouts that we had passed it many times without seeing it.

Mr. Willard (1918) says:

“Along the San Pedro River the Cactus Woodpecker
(_Dryobates s. cactophilus_) is the only one nesting at all
commonly. In the lines of willows bordering the irrigation
ditches and in all the small groups found along the river
banks, I had quite a list of pairs whose nests I could
count upon finding within certain circumscribed areas.
They exhibited individual characteristics. One pair never
dug its nest lower than twenty feet from the ground and
usually selected a site that overhung the water. Another
liked short stubs not over five or six feet tall. Another
was partial to fence posts. While these selections were
not invariably followed they were so usual that I always
began my search by examining all the available sites of
that character before looking at others and was usually
successful in my first search.”

_Eggs._--The cactus woodpecker lays 2 to 6 eggs, usually 4 or 5. These are usually oval or short oval, sometimes elliptical-oval or elliptical-ovate. They are pure white and more or less glossy. The measurements of 18 eggs average 21.48 by 16.18 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure =23.02= by 16.67, 22.5 by =17.0=, and =19.2= by =15.1= millimeters. Bendire (1895) says that incubation lasts for about 13 days and is shared by both sexes.

_Plumages._--The young are probably hatched naked (I have not seen any), as is the case with other woodpeckers, but the juvenal plumage is acquired before the young bird leaves the nest. This first plumage is much like that of the adult male, but the sexes are not quite alike. In the young male, the forehead, sides of the occiput, and the nape are uniform black; only the crown is scarlet, more or less dotted with white. The young female is similar to the young male, except that there is usually much less scarlet on the crown, often only a few scarlet tips. In both sexes the back is barred with dull black and grayish white, instead of the clear black and white of the adult; the under parts are “vinaceous-buff,” faintly spotted on the sides and flanks; the plumage is softer and the markings are not so clearly defined as in the adult. Just how long this plumage is worn I have not been able to determine, but July birds show signs of body molt and an increasing amount of the clear black streaks of the adult plumage on the sides and flanks. Probably a plumage that is practically adult is assumed by the first fall at the latest. Adults apparently have a complete annual molt in summer, mainly in August.

_Food._--The cactus woodpecker lives mainly on the larvae of wood-boring beetles, which it gleans from the trunks and branches of trees. It also eats the larvae of the coddling moth and other Lepidoptera, ants, caterpillars, and cotton worms. It usually forages at low elevations on small trees, shrubs, and various cacti and is often seen feeding on the ground. Major Bendire (1895) says that this woodpecker, “like several other species, is very fond of the ripe figlike fruit of the giant cactus, and I have met it more than once in Sahuarito Pass, Arizona, eating it on the ground.”

_Voice._--Ralph Hoffmann (1927) compares the notes of the cactus woodpecker with those of the downy woodpecker and says that “the common notes are a single high-pitched _tschik_ or a longer rattling call with a slight fall toward the end. It often calls as it flies, and like other woodpeckers drums in spring on dry limbs.” Dawson (1923) refers to the notes as “his _plink, plink_, and his long rolling chirrup.”

_Field marks._--A small woodpecker with the upper parts distinctly and extensively barred with black and white is either one of the races of _Dryobates scalaris_, commonly called ladderbacks, or _Dryobates nuttalli_. These two species are very much alike in superficial appearance and might be easily confused; but fortunately their ranges do not overlap, except to a slight extent in some of the mountain passes of southeastern California. Mr. Dawson (1923) says that the cactus woodpecker “is browner above, more strikingly, heavily, and numerously barred, with less of black on sides of head, and red (of adult male) pervading crown as well as nape.”

_Winter._--W. E. D. Scott (1886) says that these woodpeckers “are at times gregarious. I particularly noticed this in December, 1885, when I frequently met the species in flocks of from four to a dozen, on the plains at an altitude of 3,000 feet.”

DRYOBATES SCALARIS EREMICUS Oberholser

SAN FERNANDO WOODPECKER

HABITS

This race of ladder-backed woodpeckers occupies the northern half of Baja California, north of the range of _Dryobates scalaris lucasanus_, with which it intergrades about midway the peninsular. It is described by Dr. H. C. Oberholser (1911b) as “similar to _Dryobates scalaris lucasanus_, but larger; lower surface darker; upper parts darker, the white bars on back averaging narrower and less regular, the black bars wider; black bars on posterior lower parts averaging somewhat wider.”

Very little seems to have appeared in print about this woodpecker, but, as it lives in a similar habitat to that occupied by the San Lucas woodpecker, it probably does not differ materially from it in habits. It lives in the lowland, desert regions and nests in the giant cactus. Both races are said to be rather shy. It is replaced in extreme northwestern Baja California by Nuttall’s woodpecker and in the extreme northeast by the cactus woodpecker.

Griffing Bancroft (1930) states that the measurements of nine eggs of this subspecies average 21.7 by 16.7 millimeters.

DRYOBATES NUTTALLI (Gambel)

NUTTALL’S WOODPECKER

PLATES 11, 12

HABITS

Though closely resembling, superficially, the ladder-backed woodpeckers of the _scalaris_ group, Nuttall’s woodpecker is a very distinct species; the ranges of the two species come together at several points but do not overlap; and the habitats of the two are in different types of environment. The 1931 A. O. U. Check-List gives the range of _nuttalli_ as “Upper Austral Zone west of the southern Cascade Mountains and the Sierra Nevada from southern Oregon to northwestern Lower California.”

W. Leon Dawson (1923) described the haunts of this woodpecker very well, as follows:

Although one who is forming the acquaintance of the Nuttall
Woodpecker soon learns where to look for him, his range
is hard to characterize in terms of associations. Upper
Sonoran, foothill, oak, live oak, chaparral, deciduous
trees bordering narrow stream beds--all these apply to
_nuttalli_ well enough, but they are not exhaustive, save
for the first, which is all inclusive. Within Upper Sonoran
limits it is, perhaps, easier to tell where he will not be
found; thus, not (or only occasionally) in pine timber;
not in stands of pure willow (which are given over to _D.
pubescens turati_); not in orchards, nor about cultures of
any sort; not, most decidedly, “nesting in giant cactus.”
Least of all, is it “seldom found along streams,” as one
precocious authority avers. A narrow canyon whose floor
harbors sycamores and alders and bay trees, nourished by a
purling stream, and whose sides are lined with live oaks
which run up into ceanothus chaparral, is precisely the
best place to look for _D. nuttalli_.

_Nesting._--Major Bendire (1895) quotes the following contribution from B. T. Gault:

I had been out on the bowlder plain [in the San Bernardino
Valley] several hours, on the morning of April 23, 1883,
collecting birds, and spying a clump of elder bushes in
the distance, not far from the brook, the thought occurred
to me that I might take a rest beneath their shade and
at the same time be ready for any bird that put in an
appearance. These bushes, or more properly trees, are a
great deal larger shrub than our eastern plant, their
trunks growing from 4 to 8 inches through; and if they
are not the same species, their umbellate blossoms are
strikingly similar, if not identical, to those of our
common eastern shrub (_Sambucus canadensis_). I had hardly
seated myself on an arm of the shrub when my attention was
attracted to a hole in the main trunk, directly above my
head. At almost the same instant a bird appeared at the
opening from within, and dodged back again as soon as she
saw me. The movement was executed so quickly that I was
unable to tell whether it was a wren or a woodpecker, but
concluded that it was the latter. Upon examination of the
aperture it seemed to have been lately made. Of course I
thought that there would be no trouble in dislodging her,
and commenced to rap on the trunk of the shrub with the
butt of my gun; but this seemed to have no effect. I then
walked back about 50 feet, and taking a stand, waited from
ten to fifteen minutes in the hope that she would come out,
affording me an opportunity to secure her and thus solve
the mystery, but in this maneuver I was also baffled. I
then went up to the bush and shouted with all my might,
but this did not shake her nervous system in the least,
when I finally resorted to my jackknife in order to enlarge
the orifice, but, from its being such a tedious job, gave
it up in disgust. The next morning I took a hatchet along
with me, for I desired very much to know what that hole
contained. It did not take me very long to cut a place
large enough for me to get my hand in, and I was thoroughly
surprised to learn that the bird was still on her nest. I
pulled her out, and she appeared to be stupefied--dead,
apparently--but soon revived. Upon further inspection I
found that the nest contained eggs. The bird proved to be a
female Nuttall’s woodpecker, and the eggs were pretty well
advanced in incubation and would have hatched in a few days.

The nest, which was about 5½ feet from the ground, was
nearly a foot deep and about 5 inches wide. The hole at the
entrance to the nest was but a little larger than a silver
half dollar. The eggs were six in number.

Mr. Dawson’s (1923) remarks on the nesting of this woodpecker are rather cryptic, but I infer from them that it nests in willows, alders, elders, cottonwoods, sycamores, live oaks, and other oaks and at heights varying from 2½ to 60 feet above ground. The only nest of this species that I have seen was shown to me by A. M. Ingersoll, while collecting with him and James B. Dixon, in San Diego County, Calif., on April 9, 1929; the nest, which the birds had not quite finished excavating, was about 30 feet from the ground in a leaning, dead cottonwood tree (pl. 11). A set of four eggs in my collection was taken by Henry W. Carriger, on April 23, 1897, in Sonoma County, Calif.; the nest was in a dead limb of a large laurel along a creek; he had taken a set of six eggs from the same tree the previous year.

_Eggs._--Nuttall’s woodpecker lays three to six eggs, most commonly four and often five. These are ovate, or rarely short-ovate or elliptical-ovate. The color is dull creamy white or pure white, and sometimes rather glossy. The measurements of 47 eggs average 21.75 by 16.27 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure =25.0= by 16.0, 23.3 by =17.0=, =19.30= by 15.75, and 19.7 by =14.6= millimeters.

_Young._--The period of incubation is said to be about 14 days, and to be shared by both sexes. Mr. Dawson (1923) says:

The male Nuttall not only takes a lively interest in all
matters connected with the nesting, but it is believed
that he monopolizes the task of excavation. Certainly he
takes his turn at incubating, and he is invariably, in
my experience, the more valiant of the two in defense of
young. The female, however, is probably the closer sitter,
as there are several instances in which she has submitted
to the hand rather than forsake her trust. * * * When
the chicks are astir the father is fairly beside himself
with joy and apprehension. In fact, if you ever require
a symbol of doting solicitude, picture a male Nuttall
woodpecker thrusting his head into a dark hole to make
sure that nothing has spilled out of it since his last
inspection--which occurred exactly three seconds ago.

_Plumages._--The young are hatched naked, as with other woodpeckers, but the juvenal plumage is acquired before the young leave the nest. The young male, in juvenal plumage, has the forehead, occiput, and nape uniform dull black, leaving only the crown scarlet, spotted or speckled with white dots; the black bars on the back are dull black and the white bars are grayish white, instead of clear black and pure white, as in the adult; these bars are also less clearly defined than in the adult; the under parts are yellowish white, spotted on the sides and flanks less distinctly than in the adult, and with pale dusky, instead of clear black; the wings and tail are as in the adult.

The young female is similar to the young male, except that the red of the crown is more restricted and the forehead is streaked with white. This plumage is, apparently, worn all through the first summer; I have seen young birds in this plumage as late as August 30. Probably early in fall a postjuvenal molt produces a plumage that is practically adult. I have been unable to learn anything about the molts of adults. Ridgway (1914) says that spring males have the “white streaks on forehead and crown much reduced in size, sometimes obsolete, and red nuchal area more restricted, through wearing off of red tips of feathers.” The white streaks on the crown of the adult female also wear away almost entirely during winter, leaving the crown clear black.

_Food._--The food of Nuttall’s woodpecker is very similar to that of the downy and other small woodpeckers. Prof. F. E. L. Beal (1911) summarizes it by saying: “In its animal food the Nuttall woodpecker is beyond criticism. Practically all of the insects eaten are either pests or of no positive benefit. While some fruit is eaten, it consists largely, and perhaps entirely, of wild varieties. Probably the worst that can be said of the bird is that it helps in the distribution of poison-oak seeds.”

Among the insect food, the most prominent items seem to be the larvae of the very harmful wood-boring beetles Cerambycidae and Elateridae; other beetles are eaten largely, as well as ants and other Hymenoptera, scales, plant lice and other bugs, weevils, caterpillars, spiders, flies, and millipeds. Prof. Beal (1911) says: “Two stomachs contained each between 30 and 40 box-elder bugs (_Leptocoris trivittatus_). These insects have a way of becoming very abundant at times and making a nuisance of themselves by invading buildings in search of winter quarters.”

The vegetable food consists mainly of wild fruits, such as blackberries, elderberries, and the seeds of poison-oaks; a few acorns and some grain are occasionally eaten. Grinnell, Dixon, and Linsdale (1930) write: “Trees that this woodpecker foraged over were sycamore, cotton, valley oak, blue oak (most frequently), digger pine, yellow pine (rarely), and orchard trees. On June 3, 1926, one was seen feeding on cherries in an orchard near Manton.”

_Behavior._--Florence M. Bailey (1902) says of this little woodpecker:

It has a nuthatch-like way of flying up to light on the
underside of a limb, and when hanging upside down turns
itself around with as much ease as a fly on a ceiling. * * *

He is a sturdy little fellow, and in flight will sometimes
rise high in air and fly long and steadily, dipping only
slightly over the brush. He has the full strength of his
convictions and will drive a big flicker from a sycamore
and then stretch up on a branch and call out triumphantly.
Two Nuttalls trying to decide whether to fight are an
amusing sight. They shake their feathers and scold and
dance about as if they were aching to fly at each other,
but couldn’t quite make up their minds to so grave a matter.

_Voice._--The same writer says of the voice of Nuttall’s woodpecker: “At times the small Nuttall waxes excited, and shakes his wings as he gives his thin, rattling call. All his notes are thin, and his _quee-quee-quee-quee’p_ has a sharp quality. His _chit’ tah_ is a diminutive of the _ja’ cob_ of the California woodpecker.”

Ralph Hoffmann (1927) says: “One cannot remain long near a grove of live oaks in the foothills of California without hearing from some tree a hoarse ringing call _prrip_, often lengthened to a rattling _prrrrrrt_. It has the exclamatory quality of the Hairy Woodpecker’s, but is less clear and metallic, with more burr. * * * Like the other woodpeckers the Nuttall, particularly in spring, drums on resonant timber or telephone poles; it also gives at that season a rapid, squealing _quee quee quee quee_.”

Mr. Dawson (1923) says that this woodpecker “always has a grouch on, and you are sure to be challenged as you pass, by repetition of his double notes of distrust, _ticket, ticket--ticket it_.”

_Field marks._--Nuttall’s woodpecker closely resembles the cactus woodpecker, and where the ranges of the two species come together, in southeastern California, there is a chance for confusion; but their ranges barely touch each other, and fortunately the habitats of the two species are quite different and mainly well separated. Nuttall’s is somewhat lighter colored on the under parts, and the black bands on the back are slightly wider than in the cactus woodpecker; but the best distinguishing mark, if the observer is near enough to see it, is the black forehead and front of the crown, which in the male cactus woodpecker is spotted with white and red. It is only slightly larger than the downy woodpeckers but can be readily distinguished from that species by the conspicuous, transverse barring of black and white on the back, instead of the broad, white, longitudinal band of the downies; there are also more white spots in the wings than in the western races of the downy.

DISTRIBUTION

_Range._--Southwestern Oregon, California, and northern Baja California; nonmigratory.

The range of Nuttall’s woodpecker extends =north= to southwestern Oregon (probably Ashland); and northern California (Weed and Lassen Peak). =East= to California (Lassen Peak, Oroville, probably Florence Lake, Owens Lake, and Redlands); and Baja California (San Rafael and San Domingo). =South= to northern Baja California (San Domingo and Ensenada). =West= to northwestern Baja California (Ensenada); western California (San Diego, San Onofre, Santa Barbara, Morro, Monterey, and East Park); and southwestern Oregon (probably Ashland).

_Egg dates._--California: 82 records, March 25 to June 14; 41
records, April 21 to May 6, indicating the height of the season.

DRYOBATES ARIZONAE ARIZONAE (Hargitt)

ARIZONA WOODPECKER

HABITS

Strickland’s woodpecker (_Dryobates stricklandi_), a Mexican species, was formerly recorded from southern Arizona by some of the early writers; but Edward Hargitt (1886) discovered that the Arizona bird was specifically distinct, described it, and named it as a new species, _Picus arizonae_. He gave it the following diagnosis: “_P._ similis _P. stricklandi_, sed dorso uniformi nec albofasciato distinguendus.” The two species are quite similar in general appearance, but _stricklandi_ has the median portion of the back and the whole rump broadly barred or transversely spotted with white, whereas in _arizonae_ these parts are uniformly plain brown, and the markings on the under parts are in the form of large rounded or subcordate spots, instead of streaks.

The range of the Arizona woodpecker includes southeastern Arizona, southwestern New Mexico, Sonora, Chihuahua, and northwestern Durango; it is another one of those Mexican species that barely crosses our southwestern border.

Henry W. Henshaw (1875) was the first to report this woodpecker, under the name of Strickland’s woodpecker, as entitled to a place in our fauna; he writes: “This rare woodpecker is a common species on the foothills of the Chiricahua Mountains, where it was one of the first birds that met my eye when the section where it abounds was first entered. Whether it extends upward, and finds its home during a portion of the year among the pines that here begin at an altitude of about 1,000 [10,000?] feet, I do not know. So far as I could ascertain, at this season at least [August], it is confined to the region of the oaks, ranging from about 4,000 to 7,000 feet, thus inhabiting a region about midway between the low valleys and the mountain districts proper.”

Harry S. Swarth (1904) writes: “Although the Arizona Woodpecker is resident the year through in the Huachucas, it is singular how the birds seem to disappear in the breeding season, that is from the middle of April to the middle of June, when the young birds begin to leave the nest. During this time their loud shrill call may be occasionally heard from some wooded hillside, but the birds themselves are seldom seen. I have taken specimens from the base of the mountains, about 4,500 feet altitude, up to 8,000 feet, but they are not often seen above 7,000 feet.”

_Nesting._--We found the Arizona woodpecker well distributed in Ramsay Canyon in the Huachuca Mountains from the base of the mountains up to 7,500 feet, but nowhere common. On April 15, 1922, while exploring the lower part of the canyon, which is quite heavily wooded with giant sycamores, various oaks, ash, maples, black walnut, and locusts, we saw an Arizona woodpecker excavating a nest hole in a solid dead stub, about 50 feet up near the top of one of the big sycamores. The hole was on the under side of the stub and deep enough to take in all the bird but the tail. A red-shafted flicker was “yuckering” in the top of another big tree, and I think it had designs on this nest, for it subsequently drove away the Arizona woodpecker; and later on the nest was found to have been deserted. We found only one occupied nest; this was at an altitude of about 7,500 feet in a branch of Ramsay Canyon; it was about 20 feet from the ground in a dead branch of a small walnut tree, which was growing up through an oak on the steep mountain side; the entrance to the cavity, which was about 12 inches deep, was well hidden; it contained three eggs well advanced in incubation on May 16, 1922. The birds were heard in the vicinity, and one was seen to relieve the other on the nest. Frank C. Willard’s notes record the finding of two nests of this woodpecker in the same region on May 24, 1899; these were both in dead branches of oak trees; one was 15 and one 18 feet from the ground, and the nesting cavities were both 12 inches deep; “one bird was seen to leave the nest and the other one entered it; after it got in, it stuck its head out and uttered one sharp note, like a grosbeak’s, which was answered by its mate.”

Major Bendire (1895) mentions a nest, found by Dr. A. K. Fisher in Garden Canyon in the Huachuca Mountains, on May 14, that was “in a large maple which overhung a stream. The cavity was situated in a dry branch, about 20 feet from the ground, and was about a foot in depth. It contained four young, which were still naked.” There are two sets of four eggs each in the Thayer collection; one was taken by O. W. Howard in the Huachuca Mountains on April 24, 1902, from a nest in a mescal stalk, 8 feet from the ground; the other was collected by Virgil W. Owen in the Chiricahua Mountains, on April 22, 1906; the entrance to the cavity was 9 feet up on the under side of a slightly leaning, dead and decaying stub of an oak limb in a dead tree.

_Eggs._--The Arizona woodpecker apparently lays either three or four eggs; we have no record of more or fewer. The few that I have seen are practically ovate; they are pure white and some are quite glossy, others less so. The measurements of 27 eggs average 22.82 by 17.33 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure =24.0= by =18.0=, =19.9= by 16.7, and 22.5 by =16.5= millimeters.

_Young._--The period of incubation does not seem to have been definitely determined, but it is probably about 14 days, as with other _Dryobates_. Both sexes assist in this task, and probably in the care of the young.

H. S. Swarth (1904) writes:

About the third week in April they commence laying their
eggs, and after the middle of June the young birds begin
to leave the nest, and soon become quite abundant. I have
never had any difficulty in approaching these birds as
they are usually quite tame and unsuspicious; far more so
than the generality of woodpeckers, and the young birds
are noticeably so. I have several times stood within ten
feet of a young bird, easily distinguishable by his red
cap, as he was industriously pounding on a limb without
seeming in the least disturbed by my presence, or showing
any inclination to leave. On one occasion the confiding,
and in this case inquiring nature of the bird occasioned
rather a laughable scene. An acquaintance in the mountains,
passing the camp one day stopped to lead his horse down
to the well which supplied us with water. A young Arizona
Woodpecker was sitting in an oak tree close by, and soon
after the horse began drinking he flew down, and lighting
on the animal’s hind leg as on the side of a tree, hit it
a vigorous rap or two. The horse and its owner appeared
equally surprised, and both moving a little the bird
retreated to his tree. It wasn’t a minute before he was
back again, this time on a front leg, where he went to
work with such energy as to start the horse plunging and
kicking in an effort to get rid of its curious assailant.
The woodpecker left but did not seem to be particularly
frightened, as he sat on the wooden curb of the well until
he was left alone again.

_Plumages._--The young are hatched naked but acquire the juvenal plumage before leaving the nest. In three young males in my collection, taken on June 20, August 4, and August 30, the upper parts are much like those of the adult male, but the crown is more or less invaded with scarlet or vermilion-tipped feathers, sometimes with only a few scattered feathers and sometimes covering the whole crown and nape; they are more heavily spotted on the breast and more heavily barred on the belly than are the fall adults, and these markings are dark sepia, instead of black, and less well defined than in adults; the bills are smaller and weaker. Mr. Swarth (1904) says: “In the young female, besides occupying a less extensive surface, the red is less intense than in the male, and not as solid, that is there is always more or less brown showing through. The red cap of the juvenile bird seems to be worn but a short time, as a young female taken September 4 has hardly a trace of it remaining.”

Apparently the juvenal plumage is molted, including the wings and tail, late in August or September, when the first winter plumage, which is practically indistinguishable from that of the adult, is acquired. Mr. Swarth (1904) says of the molt of the adult:

The Arizona woodpecker commences to moult about the middle
of July, and by the first week in September the new plumage
is almost completely acquired. The plumage of the breast,
abdomen, and lower parts generally, seems to be the first
to be renewed, while the remiges, rectrices and feathers of
the interscapular region are the last to get their growth.
An old female shot on September 3 had practically completed
its moult, with the exception of the tail feathers, none of
which were over half an inch long; while several specimens
of both sexes, taken during the last two weeks in August,
are in nearly perfect autumnal plumage, except for some
small patches of old feathers in the interscapular region.
Fall specimens are considerably darker on the back than
birds taken during the spring and summer, but the change is
undoubtedly due to fading of the plumage, as birds taken in
the late winter and early spring, show not the slightest
traces of moult, and a series of birds taken from February
to July, show plainly the gradual change of coloration.
Singularly enough the pileum and back of the neck does not
seem to fade as the dorsum does, and consequently, while
birds in fresh fall plumage are of practically uniform
coloration on the upper parts, specimens taken in the late
spring and summer have the head and neck abruptly darker
than the back and exposed portion of the wings. * * * Of
twenty-four specimens from this region [Arizona] four show
more or less traces of white bars across the rump; one of
these is a male in nuptial plumage, one a male in freshly
acquired autumnal plumage, one a female in nuptial plumage
(this specimen has some faint indications of white bars on
some of the scapulars as well), and one is a young male.
Another spring female has some white bars on the scapulars
but none on the rump. Presumably this is a tendency toward
the Mexican species _Dryobates stricklandi_.

_Food._--Very little seems to be recorded on the food of the Arizona woodpecker, which probably does not differ greatly from that of other members of the _Dryobates_ group. It apparently feeds mainly on insects and their larvae, but to some extent on fruits and acorns. Mr. Henshaw (1875) says of its feeding habits: “When in pursuit of food, they almost always alighted near the base of the trees, gradually ascending, and making their way along the smaller limbs, and even out among the foliage, appearing to prefer to secure their food by a careful search rather than by the hard labor of cutting into the wood in the way the hairy woodpecker employs its strength.”

_Behavior._--The same observer says of their habits:

Here they appeared to be perfectly at home, climbing over
the trunks of the oaks with the same ease and rapidity of
movement that distinguish the motions of the downy or hairy
woodpecker; though their habits, in so far as they are at
all peculiar, are, perhaps, best comparable to those of
the red-cockaded woodpecker of the South (_P. borealis_),
especially their custom of moving about in small companies
of from five to fifteen, though they were occasionally
found singly or in pairs. * * *

I found them at all times rather shy, and gifted with very
little of that prying curiosity which is seen in some of
the better known species of this family; and if by chance
I surprised a band feeding among the low trees, a sharp
warning note, from some member more watchful than the rest,
communicated alarm to the whole assembly, when they took
flight immediately, showing great dexterity in dodging
behind trunks and limbs, and making good their retreat by
short flights from one tree to another till they were out
of sight.

In the Whetstone Mountains, Ariz., Austin Paul Smith (1908) observed a female Arizona woodpecker--