Chapter M: P. Skinner says, in his Yellowstone National Park notes: “This (2)

_Courtship._--M. P. Skinner says in his notes: “On May 13, 1915, I saw a red-naped sapsucker drumming on a hollow, dead lodgepole pine; soon he flew to the top of another pine, where his mate was, and the two began bobbing and curtsying in true cake-walk fashion much like flickers, except that these sapsuckers were on a vertical stub. There was no movement of the feet, but the body was bent from side to side, and there was a constant ‘juggling’ motion. The head was tilted back and the bill pointed up at an angle of sixty degrees, with neck outstretched. The neck, head, and bill were in constant motion. That of the bill reminded me of a musical director’s baton.”

_Nesting._--The Weydemeyers (1928) say of its nesting habits: “As elsewhere in the state, this bird in Lincoln County nests most commonly in live aspens. Our records for this area include four nests in live aspens, one in a live larch, and one in a dead Engelmann spruce. These nests were all in the Transition zone, near streams, Three of the nests in aspens were in a single tree, in successive years. Nest-hole preparation usually commences immediately upon the arrival of the birds in the spring, about April 20.”

Major Bendire (1895) gives an attractive account of finding a nest of this woodpecker in a live aspen, in a small grove of these trees, near Camp Harney, Oregon, on June 12, 1877: “Their nesting site was directly over my head, about 20 feet from the ground. * * * The entrance to the excavation was exceedingly small, not over 1¼ inches in diameter, about 8 inches deep, and about 4 inches wide at the bottom. It contained three nearly fresh eggs, lying partly embedded in a layer of fine chips.”

He quotes the following observations of Denis Gale:

My observations have been that this subspecies invariably
selects for its nesting site a living aspen tree. I have
never met with it in any other. This tree favors the
mountain gulches and low, sheltered hillsides, at an
altitude of from 7,000 to 10,000 feet. Above this point
they do not attain sufficient size, and are mostly dwarfed
and scrubby. Here in Colorado _Sphyrapicus varius nuchalis_
is seldom found above 9,000 feet or much below 8,000 feet.
The aspen tree is short lived, and ere much of a growth is
attained, a cross section, in the majority of instances,
will show a discolored center of incipient decay, involving
half or two-thirds of its entire diameter, with a sound,
white sap zone on the outer circumference, next to the
bark. This sound, healthy zone nourishes the tree until the
decayed core discovers itself in some withered limbs, and
frequently the top of the tree manifests the canker.

Such trees the Red-naped Sapsucker selects for its nesting
site, and with great perseverance chisels through this
tough, sound zone, from 1 to 1½ inches in thickness,
commencing with a very small hole and gradually extending
its circumference with each stage of the deepening
process, working from the lowest center out, till the
exact circumference of the intended aperture of entrance
is attained. In thus radiating in circles from the central
point the minute chips are chiseled out with considerable
ease. This mode of working is observed until the tough zone
is worked through; what remains then is comparatively easy
work; the soft, soggy, lifeless inside is worked into and
downward with greater facility, and a roomy, gourd-shaped
excavation quickly follows, the female doing the excavating
from beginning to end, and, according to exigencies,
completes it in from six to ten days. * * *

_Sphyrapicus varius nuchalis_ usually insists upon a new
excavation each year. The height of the nesting sites from
the ground varies from 5 to 30 feet; the full set of eggs
is four or five in number; sometimes a smaller number of
eggs mark a full set, presumably the nest of one of last
year’s birds. Fresh eggs may be looked for in Colorado from
June 1 to 15, and should the first set be taken, a second
one may generally be found from ten to fifteen days later;
and, as a rule, the second nesting site will not be greatly
distant from the first one. Several nests of this species
may be found within a short distance of each other in the
same aspen grove.

_Eggs._--Major Bendire (1895) says of the eggs: “The number of eggs to a set varies from three to six, usually four or five; these are mostly ovate in shape, a few are more elliptical ovate; they are pure white in color; the shell is fine grained and moderately glossy.” The measurements of 40 eggs average 22.89 by 17.28 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure =24.38= by 16.76, 23.60 by =18.50=, =20.83= by 16.76, and 21.34 by =16.26= millimeters.

_Young._--Major Bendire (1895) says: “I believe that both sexes assist in the labor of excavating the nesting site, the female appearing to do the greater part of the work, however, which is frequently very laborious, and that the male also shares the duties of incubation, which lasts about fourteen days.”

_Food._--Again, he writes: “Its general habits are similar to those of the preceding species [yellow-bellied sapsucker], and in the fruit-growing sections within its range, in southern Utah, for instance, it is said to do considerable damage to the orchards in the early spring and again in the fall, tapping the peach and apple trees for sap in the same manner as _Sphyrapicus varius_ does in the East. Its principal food consists of small beetles, spiders, grasshoppers, ants, and such larvæ as are to be found under the loose bark of trees, as well as wild berries of different kinds.”

W. L. McAtee (1911) gives a long list of trees that are attacked by this species of sapsucker, among which this western race is charged with doing considerable damage to many western trees, such as various pines, spruces, hemlocks, firs, redwood, cedars, cypresses, junipers, cottonwoods, aspens, willows, bayberry, walnuts, hophornbeam, white alder, oaks, laurels, sycamores, mahoganies, pears, apples, cherries, mesquite, ironwood, maples, _Ceanothus_, _Fremontia_, western dogwood, madrona, buckthorn, ashes, and probably others.

Dr. Joseph Grinnell (1914) says, referring to the Colorado Valley, where this sapsucker was evidently wintering among the willow thickets: “Willows were the trees attacked by this woodpecker; but in one case a single large mesquite, and the only one of many in the vicinity, had been selected for bleeding, and its main trunk and larger branches were plentifully bored. I visited this tree many times during the space of three days, March 2 to 4, opposite The Needles, and invariably found a sapsucker working about the borings. I shot two of the birds at this mesquite, and there was still one there the last time I visited the tree, although I had never seen but one at a time there.”

W. L. Dawson (1923) remarks: “In lieu of maple sap the western bird makes heavy requisition on the fresh-flowing pitch of pine and fir trees. As for cambium, that of the aspen (_Populus tremuloides_) has marked preference, and the summer range of the bird, so far as it goes, is practically controlled by the occurrence of the tree. Inasmuch as this tree is short-lived and of slight economic importance, the depredations of the bark-eaters are not seriously felt.”

Mr. Skinner says, in his Yellowstone Park notes: “I have seen the red-naped sapsucker pick and hammer on dead aspens and on the trunks of lodgepole pine for insects. On June 28, 1917, I saw one make frequent flycatcher-like sallies from an aspen out into the open.”

_Behavior._--John H. Flanagan (1911) witnessed a rather remarkable performance by a red-naped sapsucker, such as I had not seen recorded elsewhere. He had chopped out a nest containing two fresh eggs and was intending to leave them for a possible addition to the set, as he had done successfully before, when one of the birds, “both of which remained in sight, flew to the tree, perched a moment upon the edge of the cut hole, then went in, and shortly reappeared with one of the eggs in its beak. It flew to a nearby stub, not more than forty feet from where” he “was sitting, calmly devoured the egg and dropped the empty shell.”

_Winter._--Apparently the fall migration of this woodpecker consists largely of a withdrawal from the high altitudes, in which it breeds, to winter resorts in the lowlands. Major Bendire (1895) says: “During the winter months, I have occasionally observed a red-naped sapsucker in the Harney Valley, in Oregon, busily engaged in hunting for food among the willow thickets found growing along the banks of the small streams in that sagebrush-covered region, often long distances away from timber of any size.”

Dr. Grinnell (1914) noted it, as a winter visitant, among the willows and mesquites in the lower Colorado Valley. And M. French Gilman (1915), referring to the Arizona lowlands, says: “The red-naped sapsucker (_Sphyrapicus varius nuchalis_) is a winter visitant along the Gila River, and while not to be called abundant, is frequently noticed. I have seen individuals from October 6 to as late as April 17, and in all the months between these two dates. Once I saw three in one mesquite tree. Signs of their work are frequently present on cottonwood and willow trees and occasionally on an Arizona ash. If there are any almond trees in the country they are sure to be attacked, as they are favorites with these birds. Only once or twice have I seen mesquite trees attacked.”

SPHYRAPICUS VARIUS DAGGETTI Grinnell

SOUTHERN RED-BREASTED SAPSUCKER

HABITS

The above name was applied to this sapsucker by Dr. Joseph Grinnell (1901) and was characterized by him as smaller and paler than the northern race and with a maximum extent of white markings. It is evidently a well-marked race. But whether the red-breasted sapsucker should be considered a subspecies of the yellow-bellied sapsucker seems to me to be a decidedly open question, on which authorities seem to have differed, or to have changed their minds. In support of his views, Dr. Grinnell (1901) says: “I have examined a number of skins of the _nuchalis_ type, and others approaching _ruber_ in almost every degree, and I am certain that there is a continuous intergradation geographically between the eastern _S. varius_ and _ruber_ of the Pacific Coast. The intermediates do not appear to be the result of ‘hybridization’ and the case does not seem to be at all parallel to that of _Colaptes auratus_ and _C. cafer_. Therefore I see no reason why the Red-breasted Sapsucker is of more than subspecific rank.”

It is interesting to note that Ridgway used the name _Sphyrapicus varius ruber_ in 1872 and again in 1874 (Ridgway, 1914, in synonymy), but 40 years later (1914) he gave the red-breasted sapsucker full specific rank, apparently having changed his mind. And, in the same work, in a footnote under the red-naped sapsucker, referring to the intergrades mentioned by Dr. Grinnell, he says: “But they may be (and I believe are) hybrids; certainly there is no more reason for not considering them as such than in the case of _Colaptes_.”

Certainly the red-breasted sapsucker and the yellow-bellied sapsucker are as much unlike in appearance as the two flickers; and the hybrid flickers certainly show “every degree” of intergradation. In the large series of sapsuckers that I have examined, containing 87 typical _ruber_ and 86 typical _nuchalis_, I was able to find only 8 specimens that could, by any stretch of the imagination, be considered as intermediates; I believe that these intergrading sapsuckers will prove to be relatively less common than are the hybrids between the two flickers.

It is interesting, too, to note that the first three editions of the A. O. U. Check-List, 1886, 1895, and 1910, all gave the red-breasted sapsucker full specific rank, in spite of the fact that Ridgway had called it a subspecies of the yellow-bellied in 1872, and Grinnell had done the same in 1901. But the fourth edition, 1931, adopts the subspecies theory, in spite of Ridgway’s latest decision.

The southern race of the red-breasted sapsucker breeds in the Canadian and Transition Zones in the mountains of California, from the Trinity and Warner Mountains southward to the San Jacinto Mountains. Grinnell and Storer (1924) say that it “is found in the main forest belt during the spring, summer, and fall, but regularly performs an altitudinal migration which carries it down into the tree growths of the western foothills and valleys for the winter months.”

_Nesting._--Very little seems to have been published on the nesting habits of this sapsucker, which probably do not differ materially from those of its northern relative, about which more seems to be known. Wright M. Pierce (1916) located one of its nests in the San Bernardino Mountains, on June 26, of which he says: “The cavity was in the dead top of a large live silver fir about forty-five feet up. The cavity had a small opening and was only 5 or 6 inches deep; diameter, inside, 1½ or 2 inches. The nest held two large young and one smaller dead one. It was hard to see how more than one bird could survive in such a small space, so it was not surprising that the probably weaker bird had apparently been suffocated.”

_Eggs._--The red-breasted sapsucker lays usually four or five eggs, sometimes as many as six. Like all woodpeckers’ eggs, they are pure white, usually with very little or no gloss, and they vary from ovate to rounded-ovate. The measurements of 13 eggs average 23.79 by 17.25 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure =24.6= by 17.0, 23.81 by =17.86=, =22.5= by 17.5, and 24.5 by =16.6= millimeters.

_Young._--Incubation is said to last about 14 days; this duty and the care of the young is shared by both parents. Mrs. Irene G. Wheelock (1904) says of a nest that she watched: “Incubation began May 30, and lasted fifteen days. The young were fed by regurgitation for the first two weeks. * * *

“The young sapsuckers left the nest on the seventh of July, and clung to the nest tree for three days. Here they were initiated by both parents into the mysteries of sap-sucking. A hole having been bored in front of each, with grotesque earnestness the mother watched the attempt to drink the sweet syrup. During this time both insects and berries were brought to them by the adults, in one hour one youngster devouring twelve insects that looked like dragonflies.”

Mrs. Florence M. Bailey (1902) writes:

The last week in July at Donner Lake we found a family
of dull colored young going about with their mother, a
handsome old bird with dark red head and breast. They flew
around in a poplar grove for a while, and then gathered in
a clump of willows, where four young clung to the branches
and devoted themselves to eating sap. The old bird flew
about among them and seemingly cut and scraped off the bark
for them, at the same time apparently trying to teach them
to eat the sap for themselves; for though she would feed
them at other times she refused to feed them there, and
apparently watched carefully to see if they knew enough to
drink the sap. When the meal was finally over and the birds
had flown, we examined the branch and found that lengthwise
strips of bark had been cut off, leaving narrow strips like
fiddle-strings between. At the freshly cut places the sap
exuded as sweet as sugar, ready for the birds to suck.

_Plumages._--Like other young sapsuckers, the young of this species are hatched naked, but the juvenal plumage is acquired before they leave the nest. In the juvenal plumage, in which the sexes are alike, the wings and tail are essentially as in the adult; the head and neck, except for the white stripe below the eye, are dark grayish sooty, though the forehead and crown are usually more or less tinged with dull red; the sides and flanks are more or less barred with dull gray and white; and the abdomen is dull yellowish white.

By the last of July, or first of August, the molt into the first winter plumage begins, with an increasing amount of red coming in on the crown, throat, and breast; at the same time the yellow of the abdomen becomes brighter. This molt continues through fall and is often not complete until November or later. The young bird is now much like the adult. In fall birds, both adult and young, the red of the head and breast, is much duller than in spring, “Brazil red” to “dragon’s blood red” in the fall, and “scarlet red” or bright “scarlet” in the late winter and spring; this is due, of course, to the wearing away of the tips of the feathers; in early summer, just before molting, the red is decidedly brilliant.

Adults have a complete annual molt, beginning sometimes in July and lasting through August or later.

_Food._--The food of the red-breasted sapsucker is much like that of its close relatives in the _varius_ group. M. P. Skinner writes to me: “I have found red-breasted sapsuckers drilling on cottonwoods, willows, yellow pines, and lodgepole pines; but all the actual feeding I have seen was on willows. Mr. Michael tells me that these birds work largely on the apple trees that have been planted in various parts of the Yosemite Valley. When a sapsucker is at its wells, it takes a sip now and then, but considerable time is used in watchful guarding, or in driving away intruders or would-be robbers. In the case of such wells as I found on willow stems, I could see no established regularity in arrangement. They looked as if the bark had been irregularly scaled off. In fact, such work may be necessary to secure the inner bark; yet the birds actually took sap at such wells. One had a dozen willow stems on which it drilled and sipped in succession; each one was only a few inches from the next; and the bark of each, both above and below the wells, was worn smooth. This bird went from well to well in regular order, then back to the first well to begin again. Although sap formed the bulk of their food in August, I have seen them also searching the bark for insects during that same month.”

McAtee (1911) lists the following trees that are attacked by the red-breasted sapsucker: Cottonwoods, willows, walnuts, birches, oaks, barberry, sycamore, mountain-ash, pears, apples, peaches, plums, apricot, orange, pepper, and blue gum (_Eucalyptus_). Emanuel Fritz (1937) has, on several occasions, found this sapsucker attacking redwood trees. “In each instance the individual tree was ‘peppered’ with holes in horizontal rows, from the base to the top. In virgin timber, it is only an occasional tree that is attacked, and one searches in vain for another victim in the general vicinity. * * *

“During the present year, the writer came upon his first example of sapsucker work on so-called second-growth redwood. * * * The sapsuckers attacked every tree in two groups, or families, of sprouts.”

W. L. Dawson (1923) writes:

The red-breasted sapsucker does puncture trees and drink
sap both in summer and winter. In summer it attacks in this
fashion not only pine, fir, aspen, alder, cottonwood and
willow trees, but such orchard trees as apple, pear, prune
and the like, as may lie within Transition areas. In winter
at lower levels it gives attention to evergreen trees,
white birch, mountain ash, peach, plum, apricot, English
walnut, elder, and pepper trees. * * * Instead of gleaning
at random, as we might expect, the Sapsucker makes careful
selection, like a prudent forester, of a single tree, and
confines his attentions henceforth, even though it be
through succeeding seasons, to that one tree. Starting well
toward the top of an evergreen, or well up on the major
branches of an orchard tree, the bird works successively
downward in perpendicular rows, whose borings are sometimes
confluent. In this way the bird secures an ever-fresh flow
of sap, from below. If carried on too extensively, or
persisted in for successive seasons, these operations will
sometimes cause a tree to bleed fatally, or at least to
fall easy victim to insect pests. I have myself seen limbs
of mountain ash trees, pear trees, and English walnut, done
to death in this fashion. Yet it is only fair to say that
but one or two trees in an orchard may be attacked, and
there is scarcely more danger of the trouble spreading than
there would be from successive strokes of lightning. * * *

For the rest, _Sphyrapicus ruber_ is a large consumer of
ants, and does some good in the destruction of leaf-eating
beetles. Berries of the pepper trees (_Schinus molle_) are
eaten to some extent, in winter, as are also, regrettably,
seeds of the poison oak.

W. Otto Emerson (1893) says: “One I watched every morning from my tent fly to the top of a tall burnt tree and rap its roll-call as a kind of warning may be to the flying insects. It would then sail out like a flycatcher, catch an insect, and return to the burnt tree-top. Its movements were very graceful and regular. As it dipped or circled around for this or that insect the sunlight catching on the red breast lit it up like a patch of flame.” He says elsewhere (1899): “One I found in a willow tree trying to get the best of a yellow jacket’s nest, dodging back and forth either to get a mouthful of their stored sweets or the jackets themselves.”

Junius Henderson (1927) gives, in his table, the percentages of animal and vegetable food, exclusive of sap, taken by this sapsucker. Based on a study of 34 stomachs the total animal food made up 69 percent and the total vegetable food 31 percent of the whole; 42 percent consisted of ants and 12 percent of fruits, mostly wild; insects accounted for 11 percent and seeds for 5 percent.

_Behavior._--Grinnell and Storer (1924) write:

The Sierra red-breasted sapsucker is in our experience
well-nigh voiceless and its work is done in such a quiet
manner that it does not ordinarily attract attention, as do
the woodpeckers that are wont to pound noisily. The most
vigorous drilling of the sapsucker will scarcely be heard
more than a hundred feet away. The bird moves its head
through a short arc, an inch or two at the most, giving
but slight momentum to the blows. The chips cut away are
correspondingly small, mere sawdust as compared with the
splinters or slabs chiseled off by other woodpeckers. The
strokes are delivered in intermittent series, four or five
within a second, then a pause of equal duration, then
another short series, and so on. From time to time a longer
pause ensues, when the sapsucker withdraws its bill and
gazes monocularly at the work.

Mr. Skinner says, in his notes: “Although methodical, these birds seem quite nervous, moving from stem to stem. Generally they perch lengthwise of a limb when working or feeding but are apt to perch crosswise when hopping from limb to limb. After a sapsucker has its wells established, it finds it necessary to stay near to guard them from other birds attracted by the sap, or by the insects drawn there. Preening is often done while guarding the wells. The hairy woodpeckers chase these sapsuckers from tree to tree. The Audubon and lutescent warblers literally swarm to the sap-wells in the willows whenever the sapsuckers cease to guard them, but I do not know that there is active antagonism between the species. On one occasion, I saw a young sapsucker chase off a chipmunk that came too near.”

_Voice._--Ralph Hoffmann (1927) says that “the ordinary cry is a nasal squeal, _chée-arr_, somewhat suggesting the note of a red-bellied hawk.” But it is apparently not a noisy bird, as Grinnell and Storer (1924) say that it is “well-nigh voiceless”.

_Field marks._--The red head and breast of the adult are unmistakable and very conspicuous. The young bird might be mistaken for the young of the red-naped sapsucker, as they are much alike, but the head of the red-breasted sapsucker is darker and often shows dull red. The broad, white band in the wing is conspicuous while the bird is perched or when flying; this is common to both adults and young, but the red-naped sapsucker has a very similar white band.

_Winter._--Mr. Dawson (1923) writes: “Sapsuckers are more extensively migratory than any other woodpeckers, save _Colaptes_, but _ruber’s_ migrations are chiefly altitudinal. Retirement from the untenable heights is quite irregular, and dependent upon weather conditions. The winter distribution, also, appears somewhat irregular and haphazard. The bird is very quiet and rather stolid in winter, as becomes a bird of high feather. It is, however, quite as likely to be seen in a city park or on a shaded avenue as in a foothill forest.”

SPHYRAPICUS VARIUS RUBER (Gmelin)

NORTHERN RED-BREASTED SAPSUCKER

HABITS

The northern race of the red-breasted sapsucker breeds from Alaska southward to western Oregon, chiefly in the Canadian Zone. Ridgway (1914) says that it is “similar to” the southern race, “but slightly larger and with coloration darker and brighter; the red of the head, neck, and chest averaging brighter, and whitish spots on back usually smaller (sometimes obsolete).”

Bendire (1895) says of its haunts:

Throughout its range I think this species breeds frequently
at lower altitudes than _Sphyrapicus varius nuchalis_.
Fort Klamath, however, although but 4,200 feet above sea
level, has a very cool summer climate, frosts occurring in
almost every month in the year. The surrounding country
is very beautiful at that time. Heavy, open forests of
stately pines and firs, among these the graceful and
beautiful sugar pine, are found on the mountain sides and
reaching well down into the green, park-like valleys.
Interspersed here and there are aspen groves of various
extent, their silvery trunks and light-green foliage
blending artistically with the somber green of the pines.
These aspen groves are the summer home of the Red-breasted
Sapsucker.

_Spring._--In the vicinity of Fort Klamath, Oreg., Bendire (1895) found this sapsucker to be “an abundant summer resident” and says:

They are among the earliest birds to arrive in the spring.
The first bird of this species shot by me, in the spring
of 1883, was obtained on March 13, and I have seen a few
as late as November. On one of my collecting trips, the
morning of April 4, 1883, while riding through a patch of
pine timber, near Wood River, the principal stream running
through the center of Klamath Valley, I noticed a flock
of these birds, at least twenty in number. They were very
noisy, apparently glad to get back to their summer homes,
and seemed to have an excellent time generally, flying from
tree to tree and calling to each other.

As I wanted a couple of specimens, I was compelled to
disturb their jollification; those procured were both
males, and presumably the entire flock belonged to this
sex. By April 20 they had become very common, and some
pairs at least were mated and had already selected their
future domiciles, in every case a good-sized live aspen
tree. The males might at that time be heard in almost all
directions drumming on some dry limb, generally the dead
top of one of these trees. They scarcely seemed to do
anything else.

Nesting.--He says of the nesting habits in the Klamath Valley:

As far as my own observations go, healthy, smooth-barked
aspens are always selected as suitable nesting sites by
these birds. The trees used vary from 12 to 18 inches in
diameter near the ground, and taper very gradually. The
cavity is usually excavated below the first limb of the
tree, say from 15 to 25 feet from the ground. The entrance
hole seems to be ridiculously small for the size of the
bird--perfectly circular, from 1¼ to 1½ inches in
diameter only--so small, indeed, that it seems as if it
took considerable effort for the bird to squeeze himself in
and wriggle out of the hole.

The gourd-shaped excavation varies in depth from 6 to 10
inches, and it is from 3 inches near the top to 4 or 5
inches wide at the bottom. The finer chips are allowed to
remain in the bottom, forming the nest proper, on which
the eggs are deposited. Frequently they are more than
half covered by these chips. The interior of the entire
excavation is most carefully smoothed off, which must
consume considerable time, considering the tough, stringy,
and elastic nature of the wood when filled with sap, making
it even more difficult to work when partly decayed, which
seems to be the case with nearly all the aspens of any
size. Probably eight or ten days are consumed in excavating
a satisfactory nesting site. All the larger and coarser
chips are dropped out of the hole and scattered about the
base of the tree.

Johnson A. Neff (1928) says: “The nests of these birds are placed in whatever trees are abundant in their vicinity. In Klamath County, in the foothills and in the lower valleys, alders, cottonwoods and aspens were utilized; in the higher altitudes, firs were the common site, with the alder and willow along the small streams. In the Willamette Valley the firs, cottonwoods, willows, alders, and others, are used indiscriminately.”

Near Blaine, Wash., Mr. Dawson (Dawson and Bowles, 1909) found an almost inaccessible nest of this sapsucker 50 feet from the ground in a big fir stub, “sixteen feet around at the base, above the root bulge, and perfectly desolate of limbs.” He managed to reach the nest with the help of a rope and cleats nailed on the barkless trunk. He says:

“By the time I had a hole large enough to thrust in the hand, the eggs were quite buried in chips and rotten wood. But when they were uncovered, they were seen to lie, seven of them, in two regular lines, four in the front rank with sides touching evenly, and three in the rear with points dove-tailed between.”

Harry S. Swarth (1924) also found some lofty nests in the Skeena River region of northern British Columbia; he writes: “During May and June a number of nests were found, mostly through seeing the old birds carrying food to the young. One was drilled in a live poplar, the tree a straight column with no branching limb save at the very top, the nest some seventy feet from the ground. Another was in a dead birch, sixty feet up. Many others were noted, all in birch or poplar, mostly dead trees, and no nest was less than fifty feet above the ground. One male bird collected had the abdomen bare of feathers. It obviously had been incubating eggs.”

_Eggs._--The red-breasted sapsucker lays four to seven eggs, usually five or six. Bendire (1895) describes them, as follows: “The eggs, when fresh and before blowing, like those of all Woodpeckers, show the yolk through the translucent shell, giving them a beautiful pinkish appearance, as well as a series of straight lines or streaks, of a more pronounced white than the rest of the shell, running toward and converging at the smaller axis of the egg. After blowing, the pink tint will be found to have disappeared and the egg changed to a pure, delicate white, the shell showing a moderate amount of luster. There is considerable variation in their shape, running as they do through all the different ovates to an elongated ovate.”

The measurements of 54 eggs average 23.61 by 17.51 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure =25.40= by 17.78, 24.13 by =18.54=, =21.84= by 17.27, and 23.11 by =16.26= millimeters.

_Food._--Mr. Neff (1928) lists 67 species of fruit, forest, and ornamental trees and shrubs that are known to have been tapped by the red-breasted sapsucker, showing that this species is not at all particular as to what kind of sap it drinks. A total of 64 stomachs were examined, representing every month in the year. “The stomach analyses revealed 40.7 percent of vegetable food, and 52.53 percent insect food.” Ants formed the bulk of the insect food, running as high as 80 percent in July; other items were boring beetles and their larvae, other beetles, weevils, caddiceflies, aphids, various flies, mites, and spiders. Fruit averaged less than 4 percent of the food and included elderberries, wild cherries, haw and dogwood berries. “No cultivated fruits were taken and seeds were almost a minus quantity. True cambium or soft inner bark averaged 31.35 percent; most of this was taken between October and April. Other bark, fibre, and miscellaneous vegetable matter averaged 5.14 percent.”

Bendire (1895) says: “Their food consists principally of grubs, larvæ of insects, ants, various species of lepidoptera, which they catch on the wing, like Flycatchers, and berries. * * * They seem to be especially fond of wild strawberries.”

_Behavior._--Charles A. Allen, of Nicasio, Calif., wrote to Major Bendire (1895): “These Woodpeckers are very fond of hanging to telegraph poles, and may be found drumming along the line of the Central Pacific Railroad through the Sierra Nevadas, where you can hear them beating a tattoo for hours at a time. If you try to approach one, as soon as a certain distance is reached the bird will sidle to the opposite side of the pole, and then keep peeping around the corner at whatever has excited his suspicions, and as soon as it thinks it has a good opportunity to escape it will fly away with a shrill cry, and keep the pole in line between it and yourself for protection. Here they are very shy, and remain very quiet if discovered.”

According to Bendire’s own experience--

“These birds are not at all shy during the breeding season,
allowing you to approach them closely; but they have an
extraordinarily keen sense of hearing. I frequently tried
to sneak up to a tree close to my house which I knew had
been selected by a pair of these birds, to watch them at
work, but I was invariably detected by the bird, no matter
how carefully I tried to creep up, before I was able to get
within 30 yards, even when she was at work on the inside of
the cavity and could not possibly see me. The bird would
cease working at once, her head would pop out of the hole
for an instant, and the surroundings would be surveyed
carefully. If I kept out of sight and perfectly still, she
would probably begin working again a few minutes afterward,
but if I moved ever so little, without even making the
least noise, in my own estimation, she would notice it and
stop working again at once. If the tree were approached
too closely, she would fly off, uttering at the same time
a note resembling the word ‘jay,’ or ‘chäe,’ several times
repeated, which would invariably bring the male around
also, who had in the meantime kept himself busy in some
other tree, either drumming or hunting for food. While the
female was at work on the inside of the excavation the male
would fly to the entrance, from time to time, and look in;
* * * and at other times he would hang, for five or ten
minutes even, just below the entrance to the burrow, in a
dreamy sort of study, perfectly motionless and seemingly
dazed.”

Mr. Neff (1928) writes:

They have not been found to be particularly quiet excepting
during the hotter summer months. At other times they have
been neither noticeably noisy nor silent. The outstanding
features of their behavior have proven to be pugnacity and
noise during the mating season and while incubating and
feeding the young, and an extreme curiosity at other times.
In many instances the writer has located them by utilizing
this curiosity; sitting motionless on a log or rock after
failing to find them, any sapsucker in the community
would soon make its presence known by a characteristic
interrogative call, at first from a distance, gradually
drawing nearer.

In winter they seem to be quite belligerent, for on several
occasions one has been located by the angry noise as if
of a pitched battle; on closer investigation it would be
found that the sapsucker was attempting to drive some other
woodpecker, generally the Gairdner, from some favorite tree.

_Voice._--Bendire (1895) says: “While the nest was being rifled of its contents both parents flew about the upper limbs of the tree, uttering a number of different sounding, plaintive sounds, like ‘peeye,’ ‘pinck,’ and ‘peurr,’ some of these resembling somewhat the purring of a cat when pleased and rubbing against your leg. I used to note the different sounds in a small notebook at the very time, but scarcely ever put them down alike; each time they appeared a trifle different to the ear, and it is a hard matter to express them exactly on paper.”

Mr. Dawson (Dawson and Bowles, 1909) says that while he was chopping out the nest the birds “made frequent approaches from a neighboring tree, crying _kee-a, kee-aa_, in helpless bewilderment. * * * When all was over, they raised a high, strong _qué-oo,--qeé-oo_, never before heard, and reminding one generically of the Red-headed Woodpecker of boyhood days.”

SPHYRAPICUS THYROIDEUS THYROIDEUS (Cassin)

WILLIAMSON’S SAPSUCKER

HABITS

Williamson’s sapsucker is not only one of our most unique woodpeckers in its striking coloration, but it has an interesting history. Owing to the radical difference in appearance between the two sexes, they were for some time regarded as two distinct species. The female was the first to be described by John Cassin (1852, p. 349), based on a specimen collected by John G. Bell in Eldorado County, Calif. Under the name black-breasted woodpecker (_Melanerpes thyroideus_), Cassin describes and figures (1854) the adult female as the male of the species and says of the female: “Similar to the male, but with the colors more obscure, and the black of the breast of less extent and not so deep in shade,” which is a very fair description of the immature female. The male was discovered and described and figured by Dr. Newberry (1857, p. 89, pl. 34) under the name _Picus williamsonii_, based on a specimen collected by him on August 23, 1855, on the shores of Klamath Lake, Oreg. Baird, Cassin, and Lawrence (1860) give a very good description of an adult male, as the male of the species, but say “female with the chin white instead of red,” which, of course, is the immature male. Thus we have the adult of each sex regarded as the male of a species, and the young bird of each sex regarded as the female of a species. With careless, or improper, sexing of specimens, such an error might easily occur, but it is remarkable that it remained so long undiscovered. Baird, Cassin, and Lawrence (1860) describe the male as _Sphyrapicus williamsonii_ Baird, Williamson’s woodpecker, and the female as _Sphyrapicus thyroideus_ Baird, brown-headed woodpecker. J. G. Cooper (1870), in the Geological Survey of California, edited by Baird, follows the same error but calls the female the round-headed woodpecker. Even Baird, Brewer, and Ridgway, in their history of North American Birds, had not discovered the error, for they use substantially the same nomenclature.

It remained for Henry W. Henshaw (1875) to discover the true relationship of the two supposed species and clear up the previous misunderstanding. He writes: “While near Fort Garland, I obtained abundant proof of the specific identity of the two birds in question; _williamsonii_ being the male of _thyroideus_. Though led to suspect this, from finding the two birds in suspicious proximity, it was some time before I could procure a pair actually mated. A nest was at length discovered, excavated in the trunk of a live aspen, and both the parent birds were secured as they flew from the hole, having just entered with food for the newly hatched young.”

Mr. Ridgway (1877) comments on the discovery as follows:

A suspicion that the two might eventually prove to be
different plumages of one species several times arose in
our mind during the course of our field-work, the chief
occasion for which was the very suggestive circumstance
that both were invariably found in the same woods, and
had identical manners and notes, while they also agreed
strictly in all the details of form and proportions, as
well as in the bright gamboge-yellow color of the belly.
Our theory that _thyroideus_ was perhaps the _young_, and
_williamsoni_ the _adult_, proved erroneous, however; and
it never occurred to us that the differences might be
sexual, an oversight caused chiefly by the circumstance
of our having seen in collections many specimens of
_thyroideus_ with a red streak on the throat and marked
as males, while the type specimen of _williamsoni_ had a
white streak on the throat and was said to be a female. We
were thus entirely misled by the erroneous identification
of the sex in these specimens. We gave the matter up,
however, only after shooting a very young specimen of what
was undoubtedly _williamsoni_, and another of _thyroideus_,
both of which very closely resembled the adults of the
same forms, a circumstance which at once convinced us that
the differences could not depend on age; so we finally
concluded that the two must be distinct.

All observers seem to agree that this woodpecker is confined to the higher elevations in the mountains among the pines, in sharp contrast to the haunts of the red-breasted sapsucker at lower levels among the deciduous trees.

Joseph Grinnell (1908), referring to the San Bernardino Mountains, in southern California, says: “This Williamson sapsucker appeared to be restricted to the Canadian zone and upper edge of Transition. We found it only among the tamarack pines on the slopes and ridges of San Gorgonio peak, and among the silver firs, tamarack and yellow pines around Bluff lake. In the former locality the species was common for a woodpecker, especially around Dry Lake, 9,000 feet altitude, where several nests were found.”

_Courtship._--Charles W. Michael (1935) noted the mating behavior of a male Williamson’s sapsucker, which had just left a fresh nest-hole, as follows:

He sounded his harsh call several times. Seemingly in
answer to his call the female appeared. This was the
first we had seen of the female. The female examined the
nest hole, flew up on a branch and uttered a series of
low notes. The male joined her, alighting a foot away and
uttering a series of low chuckling notes. While giving
these notes he strutted along the limb with wing-tips
and tail jerking rapidly. As he approached his mate
she crouched low on the limb and the mating act was
accomplished. The act lasted several seconds before the
birds separated to perch side by side on a limb. After a
minute or so the female flew off through the woods and the
male went into the nest hole. In about five minutes the
female came to the nest hole and again uttered her soft
coaxing notes. The male came out of the hole and both birds
flew to a limb where again the mating act was consummated.
The male returned to the nest. In our two-hour watch the
female only went to the nest hole to call the mate out.

_Nesting._--Dr. Grinnell (1908) says of its nesting in the San Bernardino Mountains:

Tamarack pines were selected as nest trees, usually old
ones with the core dead and rotten but with a live shell
on the outside. In one found June 22, 1905, there were
four holes drilled one above the other about eighteen
inches apart, and one of these holes contained three small
young and two infertile eggs. * * * Later on in the same
day another nest was found similarly located containing
four half-fledged young. A nest with half-grown young was
found in the same locality, June 14, 1906; and on June
26 of the same year a nest twenty feet up in a half-dead
tamarack held five two-thirds-grown young and one rotten
egg. So that a full set of eggs probably varies from four
to six in number. On June 18, 1907, a nest with small
young was located ten feet up in an exceptionally large
nearly dead tamarack pine. This was one of the lowest of a
series of forty-seven well-formed holes of similar external
appearance, which penetrated this one tree trunk on all
sides up to an estimated height of thirty-five feet.

W. L. Dawson (1923) writes: “One soon comes to recognize the rigid requirements of the Williamson Sapsucker in the matter of nesting sites. Given a pine which is beginning to die at the top, usually in a fairly sheltered situation, and a pair of birds will adopt it for a permanent home. They will occupy it from year to year, or perhaps the year around, nesting twice in a season; and a long occupation is evinced by a trunk riddled with holes at all levels. One such ‘family tree,’ closely examined, had 38 holes, apparently complete and fit for habitation or incubation. At the time of our visit, on June 19th, the male was industriously drilling a new excavation at a height of 45 feet.”

Major Bendire (1895) says:

I obtained my first set of eggs of this species on June 3,
1883, about 9 miles north of Fort Klamath, in the open pine
forest on the road to Crater Lake. It consisted of five
eggs, slightly incubated. The nesting site was excavated
in a partly decayed pine whose entire top for some 20 feet
was dead; the height of the excavation from the ground was
about 50 feet. The man climbing the tree reported it to be
about 8 inches deep and about 5 inches wide at the bottom,
and freshly made. A second set, of six fresh eggs, was
taken June 12 of the same year, about 12 miles north of
the Post, at a still higher altitude than the first one.
It came also out of a pine about 40 feet from the ground.
A third nest, found a week later, near the same place,
contained five young, just hatched. This nest was in a
dead aspen, about 20 feet from the ground. Only one brood
is raised, and, like the other two species, it is only a
summer resident in the vicinity of Fort Klamath.

Other observers have found nests in lodgepole pines, red firs, and larches at various heights from 5 to 60 feet above ground but always in conifer associations.

_Eggs._--Bendire (1895) says: “The number of eggs laid to a set varies from three to seven, sets of five or six being most often found. These, like all woodpecker’s eggs, are pure china-white in color; the shell is close grained, rather thin, and only slightly glossy. In shape they vary from ovate to elongate ovate, and a few approach an ovate pyriform, a shape apparently not found in the eggs of other species of this genus.” The measurements of 30 eggs average 23.54 by 17.23 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure =25.91= by 17.27, 24.1 by =18.3=, and =20.1= by =15.4= millimeters.

_Young._--Both parents assist in the duties of incubation, but the length of time required for this function does not seem to be definitely known; both sexes also help in feeding the young. Dr. J. C. Merrill (1888) says, of two nests that he watched for some time: “The males brought food about twice as often as did the females, and frequently removed the excrement of the young on leaving the nest, alighting on the nearest tree for a moment to drop it and to clean their bills; I did not see either of the females remove any excreta. About four feet above one of the holes was another occupied by a pair of pigmy nuthatches, but neither species paid any attention to the other when they happened to arrive with food at the same time.”

Dr. Grinnell (1908) writes: “We usually located the nests by watching the movements of the parent birds, which flew from their foraging places, often far distant, direct to the nest tree. The young uttered a whinnying chorus of cries when fed, and the adults, though generally very quiet, had a not loud explosive cry, more like the distant squall of a red-tailed hawk. The bill and throat of an adult male, shot as it was approaching a nest, was crammed with large wood ants, not the kind, however, that are common at lower altitudes and smell so foully.”

Charles W. Michael (1935) watched a nest containing young, in the Yosemite region, of which he says:

When we arrived, about ten o’clock, both parent birds were
bringing food. We watched the birds for an hour and a half
and in this period of time the male made nine trips to the
nest hole and the female made seven trips. The young were
small, as the parent birds went completely into the nest
hole. The birds, male and female, always came onto the tree
trunk above the nest hole and hitched jerkily downward
until on a level with the hole. They landed anywhere
between five and fifteen feet above the hole; the female
was likely to land nearest to the hole. * * * About every
other trip excrement was carried from the nest. When the
male cleaned nest he carried the feces away and dropped
them some distance from the nest. When the female cleaned
nest she came to the entrance from within, looked about and
then dropped the refuse before leaving the nest hole.

_Plumages._--The most remarkable characteristic of this woodpecker is the striking difference in the plumages of the two sexes at all ages, from the first plumage of the young bird to its maturity; in most birds the sexes are much alike in the juvenal plumage; but the young male Williamson’s sapsucker is much like the adult male, and the young female is much like the adult female; the principal character common to both sexes at all ages is the white rump.

These young sapsuckers are fully fledged before they leave the nest.

The young male, in juvenal plumage in summer, differs from the adult male in having a smaller and weaker bill and softer, more blended plumage; the black areas, except the wings and tail, which are like those of the adult, are dull brownish black, instead of clear glossy black; there are usually numerous elongated white spots or streaks, more or less concealed, on the scapulars and upper back, and often a few small whitish spots on the crown; the chin and upper throat are white, instead of scarlet; the center of the breast and abdomen is dull yellowish white, instead of bright “lemon-chrome”; the sides and flanks are barred, instead of striped or spotted, with dusky.

The young female differs from the adult female in having a smaller and weaker bill and softer plumage; the black breast patch is entirely lacking; the breast, sides, and flanks are barred with dusky, but less distinctly than in the adult; and the yellow of the central breast and abdomen is much paler.

These two juvenal plumages are worn for only a short time in summer. I have seen young males molting into their first winter plumage, which is practically adult, as early as August 9; and young females begin to show the increasing black breast patch as early as August 6; but this molt is slow, or variable, and is sometimes not completed until November or December.

Adults apparently have their complete annual molt mainly in August and September.

_Food._--Mrs. Florence M. Bailey (1928) says: “In 17 stomachs examined, 87 percent was animal matter and 13 percent vegetable. Of the animal contents, 86 percent was ants, and cambium made up 12.55 percent of the total food.”

Grinnell and Storer (1924) write:

In the Yosemite region the Williamson Sapsucker is closely
associated with the lodgepole pine. While this tree
seems to furnish the bird’s preferred source of forage,
practically all other species of trees within its local
range are also utilized. We saw workings attributable to
this sapsucker on the alpine hemlock, red and white firs,
Jeffrey pine, and quaking aspen.

The amount of work which this sapsucker will do upon
a single tree was impressed upon us while we were at
Porcupine Flat in early July, 1915. In that locality there
was a lodgepole pine (_Pinus murrayana_) about 60 feet
high, which showed no marks of sapsucker work previous to
the current year. The tree was in full leafy vigor and
measured 8 feet 3¼ inches in girth at 3 feet above the
ground. There were numerous live branches down to within 6
feet of the ground. Twenty-six irregularly horizontal rows
of fresh punctures were counted on one side of the trunk,
the lowest being only 18½ inches above the ground, and the
highest about 40 feet. * * *