Chapter M: P. Skinner says in his notes: “In many of their ways, motions, and (1)

mannerisms these birds strongly resemble the red-headed woodpeckers of Eastern United States. Often they are very quiet and remain motionless in one position for many minutes at a time. They are as apt to perch crosswise as lengthwise of a horizontal, or nearly horizontal, limb. At times, they hop along a limb, or the cross-arm of an electric pole, while their bodies are turned a little sideways. Although one exhibited the usual woodpecker habit of nervously jumping down backward, and swaying from side to side, so as to be seen first on one side of his dead stub and then on the other, he was really noticeably quiet and motionless most of the time. One was seen in the Yosemite Valley on the under side of a cottonwood twig, clinging there with his back down.”

Bendire (1895), on the other hand, says: “It is one of the most restless Woodpeckers I know of, and never appears to be at a loss for amusement or work of some kind, and no other bird belonging to this family could possibly be more industrious.” This was my impression of it, as well as the opinion of others.

Henry W. Henshaw (1921) evidently considered this woodpecker playful, for he writes: “In searching for the motives underlying the storing habit of the California Woodpecker we should not lose sight of the fact that the several acts in the process, the boring of the holes, the search for the acorns, the carrying them to the holes and the fitting them in, bear no semblance to work in the ordinary sense of the term, but is play. I have seen the birds storing acorns many times, and always when thus engaged they fill the air with their joyous cries and constantly play tag with each other as they fly back and forth. When thus engaged they might not inaptly be likened to a group of children at play.”

California woodpeckers are well known to be sociable birds and to live more or less in communities or loose colonies, where food conditions are favorable. But a most remarkable story of apparently communal nesting is told by Frank A. Leach (1925). On February 2, 1922, he discovered these woodpeckers excavating a nest in a wooden trolley pole at Diablo, Calif. He estimated that they must have started work on this hole about the middle of January and thinks that it was some time near the latter part of April before it was finished. On March 1, he “saw two go in one after the other. Both appeared to be working on the inside. Two other birds on the pole showed interest in the work by remaining there and taking an occasional peep into the hole.” On April 3, there were “from four to six woodpeckers about the place all day. On one occasion saw three go into the hole. Heard digging while they were inside.” On April 17, he saw “three birds go into the cavity and soon after heard two of them working. Four other birds were on the pole, one looking into the hole.”

The above extracts from his notes, made at frequent intervals and often for several days in succession, would seem to indicate that at least two, and possibly three, pairs of woodpeckers assisted in the excavation of that nest, but evidently their work was not very efficient, as the time involved was unusually long. The same cooperative behavior continued during incubation of the eggs and the feeding of the young, several different birds working in relays; and this continued during the rearing of three broods of young that season. He says that “in the case of the second brood, on eight different occasions I saw three different old birds feed the young ones in the nest, and at one time I witnessed a fourth one delivering food to them.”

Referring to the third brood, he says:

In the large oak tree standing so near the trolley pole
that some of its outer branches nearly reached the
pole, there were almost always from six to eight mature
woodpeckers, all of which seemed to be interested in the
welfare of the nestlings in the pole. I repeatedly saw
three of them feed the youngsters, and on two occasions
noted four different old birds perform this parental
service. I was satisfied from the actions of the birds that
a majority of the flock, if not all of them, participated
in the care of the young woodpeckers. * * *

For others than the parent birds to feed the young was a
custom that was not confined to this group or flock at the
trolley pole. At about the time the young were leaving
that nest, I discovered another nest in a large oak tree
situated about a quarter of a mile distant from the pole,
where I found from one to five old birds, and possibly
more, very busy feeding the nestlings.

Major Bendire (1895) remarks: “The California woodpecker is by far the most social representative of this family found within the United States, and it is no unusual occurrence to see half a dozen or more in a single tree. It is also a well-disposed bird, and seldom quarrels or fights with its own kind or with smaller species; but it most emphatically resents the thieving propensities of the different jays, magpies, and squirrels, when caught trespassing on its winter stores, attacking these intruders with such vigor and persistency that they are compelled to vacate the premises in a hurry.”

According to some other observers, its behavior toward other species is not always as friendly as it might be. M. P. Skinner writes to me: “Once I found a California woodpecker and a California jay peaceably perched in the top of a dead cottonwood. But at other times I have noted much fighting between these woodpeckers and the jays, with the woodpeckers apparently able to hold their own. On May 1, 1933, at old Fort Tejon, I saw a California woodpecker make a vicious dive at a plain titmouse that was clinging to the bark on the trunk of an oak. On May 31 I saw one make a dive at an Arkansas kingbird on a fence and drive it away. In May 1933 I found a pair of house finches that had attempted to nest in a cavity high up in a dead stub of a black oak. When I appeared, I found a California woodpecker throwing out the straws and other nest material. The two finches were only a foot or two distant, but they made no attempt to save their home, although it is probable that they were scolding. Old acorn stores in the same stub indicated that some woodpecker had an earlier claim to that stub than the finches had.”

Howard W. Wright (1908) says:

January 18, while collecting at Newhall, California, I
wounded a Lewis woodpecker. The bird was able to fly
to another tree, and I noticed that some California
woodpeckers in a nearby tree became very much excited. As
the Lewis woodpecker lit on the tree trunk four California
woodpeckers attacked him evidently with the intent of
driving him off. The Lewis started for another tree but a
California flew at him from in front, and they both fell
in the struggle that ensued. At this the other California
woodpeckers, which were joined by a few more, set up a
violent chattering and when I ran up, to my amazement I
found that the Lewis had hold of the California by the
skull, two of its claws entering the latter’s eyes and the
other two entering the skull in front and behind. The Lewis
woodpecker was dead and the California so nearly so that it
died while I was removing the former’s claws.

_Voice._--Mr. Skinner says in his notes: “In May, at least, these woodpeckers are sometimes noisy while calling to their mates. One gave a ringing _cleep-ep_, _cleep-ep_ call on May 25, 1933. It was somewhat similar to a flicker’s call.” Ralph Hoffmann (1927) says: “When a bird lights on a pole or limb already occupied, there is always mild excitement, fluttering of the wings, bowing and scraping, and always a lively interchange of harsh calls, like the syllables _chák-a_, _chák-a_, _chák-a chak_, dying off at the end.” W. L. Dawson (1923) gives the following interpretations of its notes: “A jeering, raucous voice, * * * _Jacob_, _Jacob_, _Jacob_; * * * _Kerack Kerack_;” and “_chaar chaar tchurrup_.”

_Field marks._--The California woodpecker is conspicuously marked and need not be mistaken for anything else from any angle. When flying away, it looks like a black bird with an extensive white rump and with a white patch in each wing; when flying over or when perched facing the observer, the white abdomen and the broad black band across the chest are distinctive; if near enough, the color pattern of the head is easily seen.

[1] Prof. Ritter’s extensive book (1938) on the California
woodpecker appeared while this bulletin was in
press.--EDITOR.

BALANOSPHYRA FORMICIVORA ANGUSTIFRONS (Baird)

NARROW-FRONTED WOODPECKER

HABITS

The Cape region of southern Baja California is the home of this subspecies. It is a well-marked race, which Ridgway (1914) describes as “similar to _B. f. formicivora_, but wing averaging much shorter, bill relatively larger, white frontal band decidedly narrower, lower throat usually much more strongly yellow, white area on proximal portion of remiges smaller, and the adult female with black area on crown much narrower.”

William Brewster (1902) says of its haunts:

This woodpecker, which seems to be confined to the Cape
Region proper, is exceedingly abundant throughout the pine
forests on the higher mountains south of La Paz and common
in many places in the oaks at the bases of the mountains
and among their foot-hills, ranging downward, according to
Mr. Belding, to an elevation of about 700 feet. Mr. Frazar
found it most numerous on the Sierra de la Laguna, during
the last week of April and the first week of May. After
that its numbers decreased perceptibly. It began breeding
on this mountain the first week in June, but the breeding
season was not at its height until the middle of that
month. * * *

Only one specimen was seen at Triunfo during the last two
weeks of June, but the bird was common and presumably
breeding at Pierce’s Ranch in July. At the latter place
it fairly swarmed in December, the resident colony being
probably augmented by large numbers of winter visitors
from La Laguna, where Mr. Frazar found only a few birds
lingering in late November and early December. Along the
road between San José del Cabo and Miraflores it was seen
in considerable numbers on November 15, and three were
observed in some evergreen oaks at Santiago on November 23.

_Nesting._--There is a set of four eggs in the Thayer collection, apparently the same set referred to by Mr. Brewster, collected by M. Abbott Frazar in the Sierra de la Laguna, on June 3, 1887; the nest is described as 10 feet up in a dead pine stump; the entrance measured 1¾ inches in diameter, and the cavity was 18 inches deep. The measurements of these 4 eggs are =24.13= by 19.05, 22.61 by =19.56=, =22.61= by 19.30, and 23.88 by =18.80= millimeters.

The food and general habits of this woodpecker do not seem to differ materially from those of the species elsewhere. It has similar acorn-storing habits, for Mr. Frazar found “many dead pines literally stuffed full of acorns.”

BALANOSPHYRA FORMICIVORA ACULEATA (Mearns)

MEARNS’S WOODPECKER

PLATE 28

HABITS

Along our southwestern border, from Arizona, New Mexico, and western Texas southward over northwestern Mexico to Durango, we find this race of ant-eating woodpecker. It was separated, named, and described by Dr. Edgar A. Mearns (1890a) as follows: “General size and coloring intermediate between _M. formicivorus_ and M. _formicivorus bairdi_; throat less yellow than in either of them; bill shorter, more slender, and less arcuate than in either of the other forms of M. formicivorus; white striping of chest more than in the Pacific coast form, less than in _formicivorus_.”

He says of its haunts (1890b): “A very common resident through the pine belt, breeding plentifully. I have found it as high as the spruce forests, but never in them. It is essentially a bird of the pines, only occasionally descending to the cottonwoods of the low valleys. The oaks which are scattered through the lower pine zone supply a large share of its food.”

Henry W. Henshaw (1875) writes: “This woodpecker was first observed when we neared Camp Apache, and, so far as my own observations go, its range in Arizona is coincident with that of the oaks, the acorns of which appear to constitute a very important item in its bill of fare. We noticed it to the southward in every locality where oaks were found in sufficiently large groves to afford it at once a place of shelter and an inexhaustible source whence to draw food.”

Harry S. Swarth (1904), writing of the Huachuca Mountains, Ariz., says: “A most abundant summer resident in the lower parts of the mountains; a few winter here but they are scarce during the cold weather. I saw but two or three during February and the early part of March, about the middle of March they began to arrive in numbers, and by April 1 were most abundant. Primarily a bird of the oak woods they seldom venture into the higher parts of the mountains, breeding almost entirely below 6,000 feet.”

_Courtship._--We found this woodpecker quite common on the steep slopes of the Huachuca Mountains in May 1922, especially in the vicinity of Ramsay Canyon, between 5,000 and 6,000 feet elevation. They were usually seen in the open groves of tall pines mixed with oaks. A tall dead pine seemed to be one of their favorite resorts for their courtship displays, which were both showy and noisy. They reminded me of flickers as they dodged about the branches, chasing each other and displaying their conspicuous markings.

_Nesting._--I have the records of four sets of eggs, all taken in the Huachuca Mountains but in a variety of nesting sites. There are two sets in the Thayer collection; one, containing six eggs, was taken on May 10, 1897, from a hole 8 inches deep in the dead limb of a sycamore, 30 feet from the ground; the other set of five eggs was taken on June 1, 1902, from a cavity 10 inches deep in an ash stump, 20 feet from the ground. A set of three eggs, in my collection, was collected by O. W. Howard on May 31, 1901; the nest was 6 feet above ground in a dead oak stump. Frank C. Willard took a set of five eggs on May 31, 1899, from a cavity 15 inches deep, 35 feet up in a large dead pine stub.

_Eggs._--Mearns’s woodpecker evidently lays three to six eggs. Major Bendire (1895) mentions a set of ten eggs, taken by F. H. Fowler, which were “evidently the product of two females.” The eggs are pure white, of course, and vary from short-ovate to rounded-ovate, with only a slight gloss. The measurements of 20 eggs average 24.07 by 18.91 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure =26.8= by =17.8= (a long narrow egg), 23.9 by =20.8=, and =22.4= by 19.5 millimeters.

_Plumages._--Mr. Swarth (1904) writes:

About July 1 the young birds begin to make their appearance
so like the adults in general appearance that it is
difficult to distinguish between them. The young of both
sexes usually have the entire crown red, as in the adult
male, but of a duller color, more of a brick red; but one
young female secured has the red area very limited and
coming to a point behind, so as to form a small, triangular
shaped patch on the crown. Of seventeen specimens collected
in the Huachucas, three show, more or less distinctly,
white markings on the outer tail feathers. In one of
these, an adult female, the marks consist of indistinct
white spots, mostly on the inner web. The other two,
juvenile females, have the outer feathers distinctly,
though irregularly, barred with white for about half their
length.

_Food._--The food of this woodpecker is evidently similar to that of other races of the species. Dr. Mearns (1890b) remarks: “Its habit of industriously hoarding food in the bark of pines, and in all sorts of chinks and hollows, is well known. These stores are the source of unending quarrels between this woodpecker and its numerous pilfering enemies; and I have laid its supplies under contribution myself, when short of provisions and lost from the command with which I had been traveling, by filling my saddlebags with half-dried acorns from under the loose bark of a dead pine.”

_Behavior._--Mrs. Bailey (1928) says: “An odd habit of the woodpeckers was happened on by Mr. Ligon in the Black Range. At dark, on March 15, 1913, seeing a bird enter a hole about eight feet up in an oak he closed it after it, and in the morning when he returned was surprised to find six birds in the one hole. As the woodpeckers do not nest until the last of May, and then in high dead pines, it was, of course, a night roost.”

Ed. S. Steele (1926) tells the following story:

I was camping in a pine forest not many miles from Reserve,
N. Mex., accompanied by a small English terrier. In front
of my tent stood a large dead pine, near the top of which
there were a number of holes, evidently the homes of four
pairs of Ant-eating Woodpeckers (_Balanosphyra formicivora
aculeata_). A gray tassel-eared squirrel came scampering
along, and was at once spied by the dog, which gave chase.
The squirrel ran up the dead tree mentioned above, to be
instantly assailed by the woodpeckers. Their constant cries
and their sharp bills made things so uncomfortable for the
squirrel that it ran down the tree to within a few feet of
the dog, who sent him scampering to the top again with his
eight antagonists constantly flaying him.

About this time there was a swish of wings, and a
sharp-shinned hawk (_Accipiter velow_) darted like a streak
among the woodpeckers. For an instant it seemed that one
of them was doomed, but by a small margin it managed to
escape, and in an instant they had all darted to cover
among the green boughs of surrounding trees. All was quiet
for a few brief seconds, when the woodpeckers returned to
the attack, except one which perched on the topmost bough
of a near-by tree, as guard or lookout, watching for the
hawk. The other seven took up the fight with the squirrel.

In a few minutes the hawk again appeared on the scene,
the guard gave a shrill call of warning, and all the
woodpeckers were under cover before their enemy could reach
them. The hawk, then, finding the birds on their guard,
left and did not return. The terrier soon abandoned the
tree, and the squirrel hurried down and scampered away; the
woodpeckers quickly quieted down and went peacefully about
their home affairs. I believe that the birds recognized in
the squirrel a danger to their eggs or young.

BALANOSPHYRA FORMICIVORA MARTIRENSIS Grinnell and Swarth

SAN PEDRO WOODPECKER

HABITS

The acorn-storing woodpecker of the Sierra San Pedro Martir, northwestern Baja California, has been separated and described by Grinnell and Swarth (1926) under the above name, to which they have added the long common name “San Pedro Martir acorn-storing woodpecker.” Its distinguishing characters are given as follows:

Most nearly like _B. f. bairdi_. Distinguished from that
species primarily by shorter wing, and by slightly shorter
and notably weaker, more slender bill; also by average
differences in head markings as set forth below. * * *

The relatively feeble bill of this bird, as compared
with that of the upper California _bairdi_, is the most
conspicuous character of this subspecies. In bill structure
it is closely similar to _B. f. aculeata_, of Arizona.

The character of the head markings in the female is
suggestive again of _aculeata_, the red area being usually
more nearly square, as in that form, rather than shorter
than wide, as in _bairdi_. The white frontal band averages
slightly narrower than in _bairdi_, an approach toward the
condition in _angustifrons_, of the Cape San Lucas region.
The yellowish white (more dilutely yellow than in _bairdi_)
U-mark on the lower throat in both sexes averages very much
narrower in our specimens of _martirensis_ than in a large
series of _bairdi_ usually only about half the width of the
former as in the latter. This we are not quite confident of
as a real character, in that there is a chance that “make”
of specimen (whether or not the skin of the throat was
stretched) affects the width of the white band. * * *

In character of the markings on the feathers of the breast
there is no departure from the condition in _bairdi_. The
upper breast is broadly and solidly black, the black band
not penetrated posteriorly with white streaks to such an
extent as in _aculeata_ and _angustifrons_.

The range is given as, “so far as now known, only parts of the Sierra San Pedro Martir, in northern Lower California, between latitudes 30° and 31°30″; altitude 5,800 to 7,200 feet; life-zone mainly Upper Sonoran (live-oak association), but also Transition locally or sporadically.”

The eggs are similar to those of other races of the species. The measurements of 12 eggs average 26.19 by 18.35 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure =25.1= by =19.4=, =19.0= by 18.5, and 22.8 by =16.8= millimeters.

ASYNDESMUS LEWIS (Gray)

LEWIS’S WOODPECKER

PLATE 29

HABITS

My first impression of this curious and interesting woodpecker was of a large, black bird that looked more like a crow than a woodpecker and that flew with the strong, steady flight of a crow or a jay, with none of the undulations common to so many woodpeckers. I made the same comment the second time I saw it, and am interested to see that the same impressions were made on many others.

It is essentially a bird of the more open country and among scattered large trees, rather than of the heavily forested regions. S. F. Rathbun writes to me of its haunts in western Washington: “In this section of the State are many tracts of land commonly known as ‘old burns.’ At one time all were forested, then later they were swept by fire and in some instances more than once; but even now, on many, still stand the scarred and blackened trunks of what formerly were large, tall trees; and it is in or about these unattractive places that this woodpecker is more apt to be found, although by no means is it restricted to them.”

Major Bendire (1895) says: “I have rarely seen Lewis’s woodpecker in deep forests; far more frequently just on the outskirts of the pines, in juniper groves on the table-lands bordering the pines, as well as in the deciduous timber along streams in the lowlands, and occasionally even in solitary cottonwoods or willows, near some little spring, in the drier sagebrush-covered flats, miles away from the nearest forest.”

Winton and Donald Weydemeyer (1928) say that in northwestern Montana it is--

a common summer resident throughout most of the Transition
zone. It occurs most regularly in mixed broadleaf and
conifer woods in river valleys, and in open forests of
yellow pine along the foothills. It rarely ranges into the
higher mountains, although we observed one individual in a
Canadian zone forest of lodgepole pine and alpine fir, at
an altitude of 6,160 feet. In cut-over or burned woods, it
ranges to a higher elevation than in virgin forests.

In the eastern part of the county, this woodpecker is most
common around farms and slashings, and in the more open
woods of fir, larch, and yellow pine. Near Libby, in the
western part, it seems to prefer creek-bottom woods of
aspen, spruce, and cottonwood.

Johnson A. Neff (1928) says that his “acquaintance with this exotically brilliant woodpecker began in the mountains of Colorado, and even now the thought of it calls to mind that bleak, wind-blown area at an elevation of 8,500 feet, where these birds were very much at home in the dead trunks of spruce and hemlock that had once covered the mountains with living verdure.”

_Nesting._--Mr. Rathbun says in his notes: “In western Washington this woodpecker nests in June. Almost invariably the excavation for its nesting place is in a dead tree, the trunk of which is more or less blackened by fire, and this may be one reason why the bird is partial to the old burns. The tree may be one of several scattered about, or, infrequently, somewhat isolated. But in any event, this woodpecker shows a liking for a good-sized tree, broken off at quite a height, the outside of which has been charred or blackened by the flames. We have found many of its nesting places, and among these was one we shall not forget. In this case, the tree was a very large one, was broken off at a height of about 175 feet, and, as usual, had its outer surface burnt. Not far below its top was the entrance to the nest of a pair of these woodpeckers. Because it was so high it could be distinctly seen only by the use of glasses, but often we had noticed one of the birds enter it or come out of it. This nesting place was used for a number of years, and when it was in use we have gone out of our way more than once just to see these woodpeckers; for the top of the tree was used as a lookout station by the pair of birds, from which at times one or both would sail into the air after a flying insect.”

Major Bendire (1895) says that--

it is by no means as particular in the choice of a nesting
site as the majority of our Woodpeckers. Shortly after
arriving on their breeding grounds a suitable site is
selected for the nest, and not infrequently the same
excavation is used for successive years. In most cases
the nesting sites are excavated either in the tops of
tall pines or in dry cottonwoods, and in tall rotten tree
trunks, occasionally in partly decayed limbs of sycamores,
oaks, and less frequently in junipers and willows. The
nests, as a rule, are not easily gotten at, and quite a
number are practically inaccessible, varying in height from
6 to fully 100 feet from the ground.

* * * [At Camp Harney, Oreg.] these birds nested mostly in
junipers. * * * The junipers which are selected for nesting
sites were invariably decayed inside, and after the birds
had chiseled through the live wood, which was usually
only from 1 to 2 inches thick, the remainder of the work
was comparatively easy; the same site, if not disturbed,
was occupied for several seasons, and in such the inner
cavity was much deeper, some being fully 30 inches deep and
generally about 4 inches wide at the bottom. The entrance
hole varies from 2 to 2½ inches in diameter, and when this
is made by the birds it is always perfectly circular; but
occasionally a pair will take advantage of an old knot
hole, if it and the cavity it leads to are not too large.

The Weydemeyers (1928) say that in northwestern Montana this species exercises a wide range of selection for nesting trees; of four nests that they record, two were in larch stubs, one in a dead cottonwood, and one in a live yellow pine; these nests were in the Transition Zone at elevations between 2,000 and 3,100 feet.

Ed. S. Currier (1928) found Lewis’s woodpeckers nesting in what he called “colonies,” near Portland, Oreg.; in each of two dead cottonwoods, less than a mile apart, he found three occupied nests all on the same day.

_Eggs._--Bendire (1895) says:

From five to nine eggs are laid to a set; those of six or
seven are the most common, but sets of eight are not very
rare; I have found several of that number, and a single set
of nine.

The eggs of Lewis’s woodpecker vary greatly in shape and
also in size. They are mostly ovate or short ovate in
shape, but an occasional set is decidedly rounded ovate,
while others are elliptical ovate; the shell is close
grained and, in most cases, dull, opaque white, without
any gloss whatever. Some sets, however, are moderately
glossy, but scarcely as much so as the better-known eggs of
the red-headed woodpecker, and none are as lustrous as the
eggs of the flicker.

The measurements of 58 eggs average 26.22 by 19.99 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure =30.48= by 21.34, 26.67 by =24.38=, and =23.37= by =17.27= millimeters.

_Young._--Major Bendire (1895) says of the young:

Both sexes assist in incubation, and this lasts about two
weeks. The young leave the nest about three weeks after
they are hatched, and are readily tamed. I kept a couple
for several days, but they had such enormous appetites that
I was glad to give them their liberty, as they kept me
busy providing suitable food. They were especially fond of
grasshoppers, but also ate raw meat, and climbed everywhere
over the rough walls of my house. A considerable share of
the food of these birds is picked up off the ground, and
they appear to be much more at home there than woodpeckers
generally are. The young are fed on insects, and I believe
also on berries; I have seen one of these birds alight
in a wild strawberry patch, pick up something, evidently
a strawberry, fly to a tree close by in which the nest
was situated, and give it to one of the young which was
clinging to the side of the tree close to the nesting site.

_Plumages._--The young Lewis’s woodpecker is hatched naked and blind, but the juvenal plumage is acquired before the young bird leaves the nest. In fresh juvenal plumage the red “face” of the adult is replaced by black or dusky, though a young bird taken on July 22 shows some red mixed with the black in this area; the bill is small and weak; the crown and occiput are dull brownish black, without any greenish luster; the silvery-gray nuchal collar of the adult is wholly lacking; the under parts are mostly dull pale gray or dull grayish white, more or less suffused on the central breast and abdomen with dull red or orange-red; the whole plumage is softer and more blended in texture. Dr. J. A. Allen (Scott, 1886) says of some young birds that he examined: “The back and upper surface of the wings are bronzy green nearly as in the adult, with, however, in addition, broad bars of steel-blue on the scapulars and quills. These bars are especially prominent on the secondaries and inner vanes of the primaries, and are seen also in some specimens on the rectrices. The steel-blue edging the outer vanes of the quill feathers in the adult is absent; and the inner secondaries and longest primaries are tipped more or less prominently with white.”

This juvenal plumage is worn through the summer and into September, when the molt into the first winter plumage begins with a sprinkling of the silvery, bristly feathers appearing on the breast and in the collar, with the increase of red in the “face,” and with metallic-green feathers showing on the head. This molt is apparently prolonged and is not finished until early in winter, when young birds and adults are practically alike. Adults have a complete annual molt late in summer and fall; I have observed it as late as October 12.

_Food._--Referring to the food of Lewis’s woodpecker, Major Bendire (1895) writes:

In summer its food consists mainly of insects of different
kinds, such as grasshoppers, large black crickets, ants,
beetles, flies, larvæ of different kinds, as well as of
berries, like wild strawberries and raspberries, service
berries and salmon berries, acorns, pine seeds, and juniper
berries, while in cultivated districts cherries and other
small fruits enter into its daily bill of fare. Here, when
common, it may occasionally do some little damage in the
orchards, but this is fully compensated by the noxious
insects it destroys at the same time. In localities where
grasshoppers are abundant they live on these pests almost
exclusively while they last. Mr. Shelly W. Denton tells
me he noticed this Woodpecker gathering numbers of May
flies (_Ephemera_) and sticking them in crevices of pines,
generally in trees in which it nested, evidently putting
them away for future use, as they lasted but a few days. It
is an expert flycatcher, and has an extremely keen vision,
sallying forth frequently after some small insect when this
is perhaps fully 100 feet from its perch.

On this latter subject, Mr. Rathbun writes to me:

Lewis’s woodpecker is an expert at catching insects on the
wing. When in this act, its perch is some vantage spot,
such as the top of a dead tree or a bare limb in the open.
Here it sits motionless, except to turn its head from side
to side on the lookout for its prey; and when this is seen,
the bird glides from its resting place to make a capture.
On one occasion for more than an hour, we watched a pair of
these woodpeckers seize flying insects, and in that length
of time not less than 35 were taken. Through our field
glasses we kept a close watch on the birds and soon learned
from their actions when an insect was sighted, thus it was
easy for us to anticipate its capture, and in not a single
instance was a failure made by either of the birds. Once,
a light puff of air changed the course of the insect just
at the time it was about to be taken, but the woodpecker
made a quick turn upward at the same time, dropped its legs
straight down, and neatly made the take. When busy catching
insects on the wing, this bird leaves its perch by easy
wing beats or a long, slow, graceful glide; then, after its
prey is caught, rises in its flight and, quickly wheeling,
returns to its lookout station.

But, as if not content with hunting insects after the
manner of a flycatcher, sometimes this bird mingles with
the swallows as they hawk over the ground. On one occasion
in summer, as we came to a very open pasture, we noticed
numbers of barn and cliff swallows in flight over it after
insects, and in company with them was a pair of Lewis’s
woodpeckers. Back and forth over the meadow flew these
dark birds, busy in an attempt to catch flying insects,
and their actions as they flew were in marked contrast to
those of the graceful swallows. Although we watched the
woodpeckers for more than half an hour, throughout that
time neither one alighted; and when we left the place both
still coursed busily above the field.

About one-third of the food of Lewis’s woodpecker consists of acorns. It shares with the California woodpecker the interesting habit of storing acorns, though its method of storing them is quite different, for it seldom, if ever, makes the neat round holes to fit the acorns, so characteristic of the other species; and its stores of acorns are never so extensive, so systematic, or so conspicuous as those of the California woodpecker. Charles W. Michael (1926) writes:

Recently we watched a Lewis Woodpecker making trips back
and forth between a Kellogg oak and his home tree, a
cottonwood. He was busy storing away his winter supply of
acorns. Occasionally he picked a fallen acorn from the
ground; more often he flew into the lesser branches of the
oak, and hanging like a great black chickadee he plucked
the acorn from the cup. With crow-like flappings, his broad
wings carried him back to the dead cottonwood with his
prize in his bill. Alighting somewhat below the summit of
his tree he would, by a series of flight jumps, come to a
certain shattered stub where a fissure formed a vise. Into
this he would wedge the acorn.

With the acorn held firmly in place he would set about
cutting away the hull, and strong strokes of his bill would
soon split away the shell and expose the kernel. But he was
not satisfied in merely making the kernel accessible, he
must go on with his pounding until he had broken it into
several pieces, and then with a piece in his bill he would
dive into the air like a gymnast, drop twenty or thirty
feet and come with an upward swoop to perch on the trunk
of the same tree. A few hitching movements would bring him
to a deep crack that opened into the heart of the tree.
Here he would carefully poke away, for future reference,
his morsel. Usually the acorn was cut into four parts,
involving four such trips, and on the last trip to the vise
he would take the empty hull in his bill, and with a jerk
of his head, toss it into the air. An examination of the
ground beneath the tree disclosed hundreds of empty acorn
shells. Holding a watch on the Lewis Woodpecker, we found
that he made five trips in five minutes and stored five
acorns.

J. Eugene Law (1929) has published another illuminating paper on this subject, which is well worth reading; he describes in considerable detail the woodpeckers’ methods in storing the meats of acorns in cracks in poles and indulges in some speculation as to the causes and purposes involved in the habit.

Herbert Brown (1902) found Lewis’s woodpeckers quite destructive to pomegranates and quinces, near Tucson, Ariz. On September 30 he counted ten in the pomegranate groves; “they were mostly feeding on pomegranate fruit. They first cut a hole through the hard skin of the fruit and then extract the pulp, leaving nothing but an empty shell.” Later, on October 13, he says: “Now that the pomegranate crop has been destroyed they have commenced to eat the quinces, of which there are large quantities. On the tops of some of the bushes I noticed that every quince had been eaten into, one side of the fruit being generally eaten away.”

William E. Sherwood (1927) writes:

On June 16, 1923, while collecting near Imnaha, Wallowa
County, Oregon, I frightened a Lewis woodpecker from the
top of a fence post where it was evidently having a feast.
On top of the post it had left a fresh egg, probably its
own; for it was absolutely fresh, of the right size, and
unmarked. The shell had been broken into, but the contents
not yet extracted.

In a knothole on the side of the post was an eggshell (of
the same kind), and a snail shell which had been broken
into. Wedged into the cracks of the post were several
insects (some of them still alive) of the two species
commonly known as “salmon flies” and “trout flies.” On the
ground at the foot of the post were several snail shells,
a green prune (picked into), and several cherry seeds with
stems attached.

Johnson A. Neff (1928) has much to say about the economic status of this woodpecker, mainly in Oregon. A few quotations from his paper will serve to show the vast amount of damage to the fruit grower that it does in sections where it is abundant, mainly in summer and fall. He says that Prof. Beal (1911) “mentions one case in Washington wherein the birds tore the paper at the corners of packed boxes of apples left in the orchard over night, picking into every apple within reach, and necessitating the repacking of every box attacked.”

S. D. Hill wrote to Mr. Neff:

In some sections and seasons they will destroy carloads of
fruit, especially in orchards near timber. I have known
them to do 50 percent damage to a pear crop in the Peyton
district on upper Rogue River. Jackson Gyger, Ashland,
wrote: “In 1924 the loss on Spitz and Delicious apples was
about 75 percent, on Newtowns about 15 percent; Bosc and
Anjou pears about 10 percent. The loss on trees near oak
timber was nearly 100 percent. This season (1925) due to
hunting them every day the loss was possibly 50 percent
less. I bought $18.00 worth of ammunition to combat them
this year. One man can not keep them out of a seven acre
orchard, as they will work on one end while you are scaring
them out of the other.”

Mr. Neff goes on to say:

These complaints can not be over-looked, for stomach
analyses show only the volume of fruit eaten, not the
percentage of fruit damaged per tree, nor the real loss to
the orchardist. * * *

In Oregon, although it sometimes becomes a nuisance in the
small fruit plantings of various areas, it centers its
destructive activities in the Rogue Valley; there it flocks
in the greatest abundance. * * *

In this area there can be no question of the objectionable
status of the Lewis woodpecker. If the birds would consume
each fruit injured, there would be little complaint of
their taking the quantity which probably would satisfy
them. They are restless and energetic, however, and always
attacking fresh fruit, which with one stroke of the bill
is ruined for commercial use. If one allows only one bite
to each fruit, some of the stomachs studied would have
contained the samples of as high as two bushels of fruit.
In the restricted areas mentioned the Lewis woodpecker is a
pest.

_Behavior._--Lewis’s woodpecker seldom indulges in the undulating flight so common to other woodpeckers, though it sometimes swings in a long curve in a short flight from tree to tree. Its ordinary, traveling flight is quite unlike the flight of other members of the family; it is strong, direct, and rather slow, with steady strokes of its long, broad wings. At first glance one would hardly recognize it as a woodpecker, for its flight and its appearance are more suggestive of a crow, a Clarke’s nutcracker, or a jay. But it is far from clumsy in the air, and its skill in catching insects on the wing demonstrates is mastery of the air in flight. It also indulges in some rather remarkable aerial evolutions, which one would hardly expect from a member of the woodpecker family. On this subject, Robert Ridgway (1877) writes:

In its general habits and manners this beautiful species
resembles quite closely the eastern Red-headed Woodpecker
(_M. erythrocephalus_), being quite as lively and of an
equally playful disposition. Some of its actions, however,
are very curious, the most remarkable of them being a
certain elevated flight, performed in a peculiar floating
manner, its progress apparently laborious, as if struggling
against the wind, or uncertain, like a bird which had
lost its course and become confused. At such a time it
presents the appearance of a Crow high in the air, while
the manner of its flight is strikingly similar to that
of Clarke’s Nutcracker (_Picicorvus columbianus_). * * *
After performing these evolutions to its satisfaction, it
descends in gradually contracting circles, often to the
tree from which it started.

Herbert Brown (1902) evidently saw a similar flight, of which he says: “In flight they have little or none of that laborious undulating movement so common to its kind, but in action and flight they seem possessed of peculiarities supposed to belong to birds of a totally different family. Today not less than fifty of them were circling through the air, at an elevation of about 500 feet, with all the ease and grace of the Falconidae. Not a stroke of the wing was apparent. * * * Those high in the air were sailing in great circles. They kept it up indefinitely and had the appearance of being so many miniature crows. When sailing they appear to open their wings to the fullest extent possible.”

Mr. Neff (1928) states that “these birds love the hottest sunshine, and are commonly found perched in the tiptop of some tall partly-dead tree, whence they can scan the air for insect food. They rarely sit vertically upright on a branch as do most other woodpeckers, but perch cross-wise with ease. They seldom climb up the trunk or branches, although perfectly capable of doing so, and are rarely heard tapping.” They perch occasionally on wires, an uncommon habit with other woodpeckers.

Major Bendire (1895) observes: “On its breeding grounds Lewis’s woodpecker appears to be a stupid and rather sluggish bird; it does not show nearly as much parental affection as most of the other members of this family, and is much less demonstrative. It is not at all shy at such times, and will often cling to some convenient limb on the same tree while its eggs are being taken, without making the least complaint.”

_Voice._--Bendire (1895) says: “It is by far the most silent woodpecker I have met, and, aside from a low twittering, it rarely utters a loud note. Even when suddenly alarmed, and when it seeks safety in flight, the shrill ‘huit, huit’ given on such occasions by nearly all of our woodpeckers is seldom uttered by it. Only when moving about in flocks, on their first arrival in the spring and during the mating season, which follows shortly afterwards, does it indulge in a few rattling call notes, resembling those of the Red-shafted Flicker, and it drums more or less, in a lazy sort of way, on the dead top of a tall pine, or a suitable limb of a cottonwood or willow.”

Ralph Hoffmann (1927) writes: “For a great part of the year the Lewis woodpecker is a silent bird, uttering not even a call note, but in the mating season it utters a harsh _chirr_ and a high-pitched squalling _chee-up_, repeated at rather long intervals. Adult birds utter near the nest a series of sharp metallic cries like the syllable _ick, ick, ick_, which when rapidly repeated become a rattle. The young in the nest utter the usual hissing sound of young woodpeckers.”

_Field marks._--Lewis’s woodpecker should be easily recognized. At a distance it appears likes a black bird, the back and the upper and lower surfaces of the wings being black, with no conspicuous white showing anywhere, and with a crowlike flight, broad wings and black tail. At short range, the greenish sheen of the back may glisten in the sunlight, and the silvery gray collar and pinkish underparts may be seen, as well as the gray upper breast and perhaps the red face.

_Fall._--This woodpecker seems to be a highly migratory species. From the northern parts of its range it disappears almost entirely during winter; and throughout its entire range it is given to extensive wanderings, being very abundant in certain localities during fall and winter in certain seasons and at other seasons entirely absent. The species is highly gregarious in fall, wandering about in large flocks in search for suitable food supplies.

Mr. Rathbun tells me that this woodpecker is found in Washington from April to about November and occasionally is seen in winter, and says: “In this part [western] of the State the fall migration of this bird seems to begin early in September. Once, very early in the month, on our arrival at a lake not far from Seattle, we noticed a large number of these woodpeckers in three or four deciduous trees along the shore. Occasionally, a few of the birds would make short flights after insects in the air, but by far the larger number were more or less inactive and appeared to be resting, as some remained motionless where perched. And when one did change its position, it did this in a listless manner. Our arrival at the lake was rather late in the afternoon, and from the actions of the birds as a whole we gained the impression that they must have made quite an extended flight that day on their movement southward. On several other occasions in September we have seen this woodpecker as it was migrating. In each case a good many were in company, though rather loosely associated. And once, moving in a southerly direction with them for a very brief time, were numbers of nighthawks, swallows, and Vaux’s swifts flying around for insects.”

Mr. Neff (1928) writes:

This species, more than all its kin, moves in flocks in
autumn. After the nesting season it gathers into flocks
of from 10 to 300 or more. In such numbers it drops down
into the fruit districts of southern Oregon and of northern
California, and disaster results. * * *

On August 29, the writer, accompanied by Mr. Richardson,
made a trip to Lake of the Woods, Klamath County. Just
south of Ashland a few scattered individuals were seen. As
the Cascade summit was approached many were seen in the
open fields and meadows. In the flats near the lake, and
in the open meadows near Rainbow Creek, numbers were found
feeding on the mountain huckleberries. Returning to Ashland
on September 1, huge flocks of these birds could be seen
moving steadily toward the lower Valley. * * *

On September 7, also, the growers in the vicinity of
Medford reported the arrival of the first birds there.
Flocks were present until September 19, when almost every
bird in the area disappeared. A few scattering individuals
were left in various foothill areas, but these left during
November. The areas in which they wintered so abundantly
during the 1924-5 season were totally deserted during the
1925-6 season, and not until spring did they return to this
area.

Herbert Brown (1902) states that Lewis’s woodpeckers appeared in large numbers, during the fall of 1884, in the Santa Cruz Valley, Ariz., the first he had seen there for 20 years. He saw the first one on September 28 and ten on the 30th. They were very abundant at times during October but disappeared at intervals. They were last seen on November 16.

_Winter._--W. E. D. Scott (1886) says of its winter habits in Arizona:

About my house it generally appeared about the 20th of
September, and some years was very abundant. It stays as
late as April 20, and then is not seen again till fall,
though I have seen the species in the pine region above me
late in the spring. In 1884, there was an unprecedented
abundance of the species throughout the entire region under
consideration. They came in countless numbers about the
ranches, both on the San Pedro and near Tucson. Arriving
early in September, they did great injury to the fruit
crops raised in these regions, and I heard much complaint
of them. In the oak woods they were equally abundant,
living almost altogether on acorns, but spending much of
the warmer portion of the day catching insects on the wing,
very much as any of the larger flycatchers do, only that
on leaving the perch of observation or rest, the flight is
much more prolonged than in the flycatchers that I have
seen.

Lewis’s woodpeckers sometimes remain in winter, in small numbers, as far north as the Okanagan Valley in British Columbia. According to Suckley and Cooper (1860), they are “constant winter residents” near Fort Dalles on the Columbia River. Of their winter habits, Suckley writes:

They seem in winter to be semi-gregarious, flying singly,
yet still keeping more or less in each other’s company.
Their flight at this season is high and very erratic,
resembling much, in its characteristic peculiarities,
that of the swallow On warm days they keep up a lively
chattering noise, unlike, in character, that of any other
woodpecker that I have heard. During the cold season they
are so shy that it is difficult to shoot them, as at the
least alarm they betake themselves to the tops of the
highest trees in the vicinity. They at that season subsist
principally upon the larvae of insects, found in the cracks
and fissures of the “red pine” of the country. I dissected
a specimen killed at Fort Dalles, January 9, 1855, finding
the coats of the stomach (gizzard) very thick and muscular,
its cavity filled with the white larvae of insects,
together with fine gravel.

DISTRIBUTION

_Range._--Western United States, southwestern Canada, and northwestern Mexico; migratory in the northern areas.

_Breeding range._--Lewis’s woodpecker breeds =north= to southern British Columbia (Courtenay, Okanagan Landing, and Arrow Lake); Montana (Fortine, Flathead Lake, and Great Falls); and southwestern South Dakota (Elk Mountains). =East= to southwestern South Dakota (Elk Mountains); southeastern Wyoming (Laramie Hills and Laramie); eastern Colorado (Boulder, Denver, Colorado Springs, Boone, and Rouse Junction); and New Mexico (Bojuaque and Sacramento Mountain). =South= to southern New Mexico (Sacramento Mountain); Arizona (San Francisco Mountain and Fort Whipple); and southern California (Paso Robles). =West= through the coast ranges of California, Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia (Victoria, Comox, and Courtenay).

_Winter range._--On the Pacific coast the species is resident =north= to the Columbia River (Portland and The Dalles, Oreg.) and is found =south= at this season to northern Baja California (Catavina and Guadalupe Valley). During two different winters these woodpeckers were recorded wintering in southern British Columbia (Alowna in 1920-21, Vernon in 1928-29, and Summerland 1928-29).