Chapter I: Front Matter

Transcriber's Note:
In Memory of

Chris Curnow
(1937-2023)

the Project Manager at Distributed Proofreaders
who selected this book,
and more than 2200 others,
to be preserved as free digital transcriptions
by Project Gutenberg.

* * * * *

LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS

Arthur Cleveland Bent

LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS OF PREY. (20931-8, 20932-6)
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LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN BLACKBIRDS, ORIOLES, TANAGERS, AND
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TOWHEES, FINCHES, SPARROWS, AND THEIR ALLIES. (21979-8)
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LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN GALLINACEOUS BIRDS. (21028-6) $8.00

LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN JAYS, CROWS, AND TITMICE.
(21222-X, 21223-8) Two-volume set $9.00

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LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN NUTHATCHES, WRENS, THRASHERS, AND
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LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN WAGTAILS, SHRIKES, VIREOS, AND
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LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN WOODPECKERS. (21083-9)

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_LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN WOODPECKERS_

_LIFE HISTORIES
OF NORTH AMERICAN
WOODPECKERS_

_by
Arthur Cleveland Bent_

_Dover Publications, Inc.
New York_

Published in Canada by General Publishing Company, Ltd., 30 Lesmill Road, Don Mills, Toronto, Ontario.

Published in the United Kingdom by Constable and Company, Ltd., 10 Orange Street, London WC 2.

This Dover edition, first published in 1964, is an unabridged and unaltered republication of the work originally published in 1939 by the United States Government Printing Office, as Smithsonian Institution United States National Museum _Bulletin 174_.

_Standard Book Number: 486-21083-9_
_Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 64-20879_

Manufactured in the United States of America
Dover Publications, Inc.
180 Varick Street
New York, N. Y. 10014

ADVERTISEMENT

The scientific publications of the National Museum include two series, known, respectively, as _Proceedings_ and _Bulletin_.

The _Proceedings_ series, begun in 1878, is intended primarily as a medium for the publication of original papers, based on the collections of the National Museum, that set forth newly acquired facts in biology, anthropology, and geology, with descriptions of new forms and revisions of limited groups. Copies of each paper, in pamphlet form, are distributed as published to libraries and scientific organizations and to specialists and others interested in the different subjects. The dates at which these separate papers are published are recorded in the table of contents of each of the volumes.

The series of _Bulletins_, the first of which was issued in 1875, contains separate publications comprising monographs of large zoological groups and other general systematic treatises (occasionally in several volumes), faunal works, reports of expeditions, catalogs of type specimens, special collections, and other material of similar nature. The majority of the volumes are octavo in size, but a quarto size has been adopted in a few instances in which large plates were regarded as indispensable. In the _Bulletin_ series appear volumes under the heading _Contributions from the United States National Herbarium_, in octavo form, published by the National Museum since 1902, which contain papers relating to the botanical collections of the Museum.

The present work forms No. 174 of the _Bulletin_ series.

ALEXANDER WETMORE,
_Assistant Secretary, Smithsonian Institution_.
WASHINGTON, D. C., _March 22, 1939_.

CONTENTS

Page

Introduction VII

Order PICIFORMES 1

Family Picidae: American woodpeckers 1

Campephilus principalis: Ivory-billed woodpecker 1
Habits 1
Distribution 12

Dryobates villosus villosus: Eastern hairy woodpecker 13
Habits 13
Distribution 23

Dryobates villosus septentrionalis: Northern hairy woodpecker 25
Habits 25

Dryobates villosus auduboni: Southern hairy woodpecker 27
Habits 27

Dryobates villosus harrisi: Harris’s woodpecker 29
Habits 29

Dryobates villosus hyloscopus: Cabanis’s woodpecker 33
Habits 33

Dryobates villosus monticola: Rocky Mountain hairy woodpecker 35
Habits 35

Dryobates villosus picoideus: Queen Charlotte woodpecker 37
Habits 37

Dryobates villosus terraenovae: Newfoundland woodpecker 38
Habits 38

Dryobates villosus icastus: Chihuahua woodpecker 39
Habits 39

Dryobates villosus sitkensis: Sitka hairy woodpecker 40
Habits 40

Dryobates villosus orius: Modoc woodpecker 41
Habits 41

Dryobates villosus scrippsae: Lower California hairy
woodpecker 44
Habits 44

Dryobates villosus leucothorectis: White-breasted woodpecker 44
Habits 44

Dryobates pubescens pubescens: Southern downy woodpecker 45
Habits 45
Distribution 47

Dryobates pubescens gairdneri: Gairdner’s woodpecker 49
Habits 49

Dryobates pubescens leucurus: Batchelder’s woodpecker 51
Habits 51

Dryobates pubescens medianus: Northern downy woodpecker 52
Habits 52

Dryobates pubescens nelsoni: Nelson’s downy woodpecker 68
Habits 68

Dryobates pubescens turati: Willow woodpecker 69
Habits 69

Dryobates borealis: Red-cockaded woodpecker 72
Habits 72
Distribution 79

Dryobates scalaris symplectus: Texas woodpecker 79
Habits 79
Distribution 81

Dryobates scalaris lucasanus: San Lucas woodpecker 82
Habits 82

Dryobates scalaris cactophilus: Cactus woodpecker 83
Habits 83

Dryobates scalaris eremicus: San Fernando woodpecker 86
Habits 86

Dryobates nuttalli: Nuttall’s woodpecker 87
Habits 87
Distribution 91

Dryobates arizonae arizonae: Arizona woodpecker 91
Habits 91
Distribution 96

Dryobates albolarvatus albolarvatus: Northern white-headed
woodpecker 97
Habits 97
Distribution 104

Dryobates albolarvatus gravirostris: Southern white-headed
woodpecker 105
Habits 105

Picoïdes arcticus: Arctic three-toed woodpecker 106
Habits 106
Distribution 115

Picoïdes tridactylus bacatus: American three-toed woodpecker 116
Habits 116
Distribution 121

Picoïdes tridactylus fasciatus: Alaska three-toed woodpecker 122
Habits 122

Picoïdes tridactylus dorsalis: Alpine three-toed woodpecker 124
Habits 124

Sphyrapicus varius varius: Yellow-bellied sapsucker 126
Habits 126
Distribution 139

Sphyrapicus varius nuchalis: Red-naped sapsucker 141
Habits 141

Sphyrapicus varius daggetti: Southern red-breasted sapsucker 146
Habits 146

Sphyrapicus varius ruber: Northern red-breasted sapsucker 151
Habits 151

Sphyrapicus thyroideus thyroideus: Williamson’s sapsucker 154
Habits 154
Distribution 160

Sphyrapicus thyroideus nataliae: Natalie’s sapsucker 162
Habits 162

Ceophloeus pileatus pileatus: Southern pileated woodpecker 164
Habits 164
Distribution 170

Ceophloeus pileatus abieticola: Northern pileated woodpecker 171
Habits 171

Ceophloeus pileatus floridanus: Florida pileated woodpecker 189
Habits 189

Ceophloeus pileatus picinus: Western pileated woodpecker 191
Habits 191

Melanerpes erythrocephalus: Red-headed woodpecker 195
Habits 195
Distribution 208

Balanosphyra formicivora formicivora: Ant-eating woodpecker 211
Habits 211
Distribution 211

Balanosphyra formicivora bairdi: California woodpecker 212
Habits 212

Balanosphyra formicivora angustifrons: Narrow-fronted
woodpecker 222
Habits 222

Balanosphyra formicivora aculeata: Mearns’s woodpecker 223
Habits 223

Balanosphyra formicivora martirensis: San Pedro woodpecker 226
Habits 226

Asyndesmus lewis: Lewis’s woodpecker 226
Habits 226
Distribution 236

Centurus carolinus: Red-bellied woodpecker 237
Habits 237
Distribution 244

Centurus aurifrons: Golden-fronted woodpecker 245
Habits 245
Distribution 249

Centurus uropygialis uropygialis: Gila woodpecker 250
Habits 250
Distribution 256

Centurus uropygialis cardonensis: Cardon woodpecker 257
Habits 257

Centurus uropygialis brewsteri: Brewster’s woodpecker 258
Habits 258

Colaptes auratus auratus: Southern flicker 259
Habits 259
Distribution 261

Colaptes auratus luteus: Northern flicker 264
Habits 264

Colaptes cafer collaris: Red-shafted flicker 287
Habits 287
Distribution 294

Colaptes cafer cafer: Northwestern flicker 296
Habits 296

Colaptes cafer martirensis: San Pedro flicker 298
Habits 298

Colaptes chrysoides chrysoides: Cape gilded flicker 299
Habits 299
Distribution 300

Colaptes chrysoides mearnsi: Mearns’s gilded flicker 301
Habits 301

Colaptes chrysoides brunnescens: San Fernando flicker 305
Habits 305

Colaptes cafer rufipileus: Guadalupe flicker 306
Habits 306

Literature cited 309

Index 323