season, and Mr. Kuhn has reported seeing groups of from three to five
birds even as late as early March. Hoyt (1905) states that “after the
young leave the nest in April they and the parents remain together
until the mating season in December. During the summer they are always
found in bands of three to five, and I have never seen more than the
latter number.”
_Conservation._--Arthur T. Wayne (1910) records having “encountered
more than two hundred of these rare birds [in Florida] during the years
1892, 1893, and 1894.” Today it is doubtful if there are a fourth of
that number left alive in its entire range.
A number of theories have been advanced for the increasing scarcity
of the ivorybill, that most often mentioned being the destruction of
its natural habitat, the virgin cypress and bottomland forests of the
South. Commercialization, avarice of collectors, shooting for food by
natives, predation by natural enemies that can enter its hole (but not
the pileated) are likewise suggested, while Allen and Kellogg (1937)
suggest that with increasing scarcity because of their sedentary
habits, inbreeding and lack of sex rhythm resulting in weak young and
infertile eggs have become increasingly important. At this writing the
National Association of Audubon Societies has established a Fellowship
at Cornell University for the study of the ivorybill, and it is hoped
that the incumbent, James Tanner, may ascertain such facts regarding
the bird and its habits that constructive measures for its preservation
can be undertaken.
DISTRIBUTION
_Range._--The Southeastern United States; nonmigratory.
The range of the ivory-billed woodpecker extends =north= to
northeastern Texas (Gainesville); southeastern Oklahoma (Caddo);
northeastern Arkansas (Newport and Osceola); southeastern Missouri
(Little River); southeastern Illinois (Mount Carmel); southern Indiana
(Monroe County and Franklin County); and southeastern North Carolina
(Wilmington). =East= along the coast from North Carolina (Wilmington)
to southeastern Florida (Cape Florida). From this point the southern
limits of the range extend westward along the Gulf coast to Texas
(Guadalupe and New Braunfels). =West= to eastern Texas (New Braunfels,
San Marcos, Brazos River, and Gainesville).
The range of the species has been so restricted in modern times that
periodically it is feared the bird is on the verge of extinction. It
is now known to exist only in a very few remote areas, chiefly in
Louisiana.
_Egg dates._--Florida: 4 records, March 4 to April 19.
Louisiana: 5 records, March 6 to May 19.
Georgia: 2 records, April 6 and 10.
Texas: 2 records, April 11 and May 3.
DRYOBATES VILLOSUS VILLOSUS (Linnaeus)
EASTERN HAIRY WOODPECKER
PLATE 3
HABITS
The hairy woodpecker, with its various subspecies, ranges throughout
practically all the timbered regions in North America, but the type
race, the subject of this sketch, is confined, during the breeding
season at least, to the Transition and Upper Austral Zones of
Northeastern United States and extreme southern Canada.
In the region where I am most familiar with it, southern New England,
it is not an abundant bird at any season, quite rare in summer and
oftener seen in winter. It is essentially a retiring, forest-loving
bird, being found with us in summer in the dry deciduous woods, or
occasionally in rural districts in old orchards near the borders of
wooded areas. In winter, it is given more to wandering into villages
and towns, or may be seen even in the shade trees in larger cities.
I remember having found it only twice in swampy woods, but Dr. George
M. Sutton (1928b), in his paper on the birds of Pymatuning Swamp,
Crawford County, Pa., says: “The hairy woodpecker occurs only rarely in
the higher deciduous woods outside the borders of Pymatuning during the
nesting season, but it is abundant everywhere in the wooded Swamp, and
in the restricted area, closely examined in 1922, was considered one of
the most numerous species.”
_Courtship._--Francis H. Allen has sent me the following notes on this
subject: “The courtship dance consists of a weaving motion of the head,
as with the flicker, accompanied by a high-pitched _ch’weech, ch’weech,
ch’weech_, repeated over and over vociferously. The note is much like
that of the flicker, but higher-pitched and more rapidly delivered.
Three and sometimes four birds may be seen so engaged together, but I
have no observation as to the sexes. In quiet intervals in courtship,
the head is held with bill parallel with the axis of the body, not at
right angles as in feeding.”
Edward H. Forbush (1927) writes:
On bright March days this bird begins to practise what
is either a love song, a challenge, a call to its mate,
or all combined. This is no vocal music but instead a
loud drumming on some resonant dead tree, branch, or
pole. This long roll or tattoo is louder than that of the
downy woodpecker, not quite so long, and with a slightly
greater interval between each succeeding stroke. It takes a
practiced ear, however, to distinguish between the drumming
of these two species. In courtship the male chases the
female from tree to tree with coaxing calls, and there is
much dodging about among the branches and bowing to each
other before the union is consummated.
Rex Brasher (1926) writes:
Seated under a cluster of small maples, one day in early
May, I watched the interesting courting antics of the
pair. The jaunty male’s favorite position was one in which
he appeared to be almost standing on his tail. With bill
upright, wings thrown forward, and tail wide-spread he
repeated over and over what was undoubtedly intended for a
love-song, a series of notes divided between chuckles and
whistles. But the strangest, most mystifying performance
was a series of backward drops on the under side of a limb
inclined about forty-five degrees. * * * Why didn’t the
little acrobat fall when he released his claws? Studying
his movements carefully through the binoculars, I came to
the conclusion that at the instant of releasing his grip he
jerked his body toward the limb with sufficient impetus to
catch the bark six inches or so below.
Lewis O. Shelley says in his notes: “I have watched the act of
copulation of the hairy woodpecker and noted its dissimilarity to the
downy. For the hairy invariably instills a follow-up procedure to the
display, the male coming to her call and, soon thereafter, hopping up
the branch toward her with a short jerking movement, in which he calls
_wick-up, wick-up, wick-up_, wings agitating, this immediately followed
by copulation.”
_Nesting._--The hairy woodpecker is rather rare, as a breeding bird,
in my home territory in southeastern Massachusetts, but I have the
records of 12 local nests. It shows a decided preference for deciduous
woodlands, six of the nests being in dry, upland woods and two in
maple swamps; of the other four nests, three were in apple orchards,
close to extensive woodlots, and the fourth was in a small, living,
red maple in a swampy meadow, some distance from any woods. The birds
showed no decided preference for any one species of tree; three nests
each were found in maples and apple trees, two each in chestnuts
and poplars, and one each in a dead oak and a dead beech. Only four
nests were in dead trees or dead branches; the others were all in
living hardwoods. The heights from the ground varied from 5 feet in
a dead poplar stub to 30 feet, or more, in tall chestnuts or maples.
The entrance to the nesting cavity often appears nearly, or quite,
circular, but on careful measurement will usually be shown to be more
or less elliptical, higher than broad; a typical entrance hole that I
measured was 1⅞ high by 1½ inches wide. The depth of the cavity was
found to vary from 10 to 12 inches, but Mr. Shelley (1933) measured
one that was 15 inches deep, and even deeper holes have been reported.
Owen Durfee’s notes give some very careful measurements of two of our
local nests, one of which is worth quoting as showing an unusually
elliptical entrance: “The entrance to the nest was on the northeast
side of the trunk of a live chestnut and 22½ feet from the ground. The
tree leaned toward the east about 2 feet. At the butt it was 9 inches
in diameter and at the opening about 6½ inches. The opening had the
usual elongated appearance, 2⅝ high by 1⅞ inches wide. The top of the
hole went straight in across the cavity for 4½ inches, the bottom edge
of the opening slanting up ¾ of an inch while going in 1½ inches. Then
the cavity went nearly straight down below the hole for 12 inches,
enlarging only a trifle, so that the base was about 4½ inches in
diameter. The shell of the tree was only about ⅞ inch thick on one side
but on the other was 2 inches thick.”
Dr. Sutton (1928b) says of the nests in Pymatuning Swamp, Pa.: “The
cavities were drilled near the tops of dead trees which nearly always
stood in water. It was impossible to climb many of them because their
bases were weak; but the clamoring of the young birds could be heard
some distance away. On May 30, 1922, I located six nests within a half
hour by watching the parent birds and listening for the young. * * *
The twenty-six nests averaged roughly over thirty feet from the ground.”
T. E. McMullen mentions in his notes a Pennsylvania nest that was 50
feet from the ground in a large maple in some woods. J. Claire Wood
(1905) reports some very high nests in Michigan; one was in the “trunk
of very large barkless dead elm about 50 feet above ground”; another
was in the trunk of a “dead beech 55 feet up and just under a large
limb.”
The female probably selects the nesting site, but both sexes work
alternately at the labor of excavating the cavity. This work requires
one to three weeks, depending on how hard the wood is; a cavity in the
soft wood of a poplar, which is a favorite with this species in some
localities, might be excavated in a very short time, but I have known a
pair to take over three weeks to excavate a nest in a hard maple; the
trunk of a living tree may have a soft center, and some of the birds
seem to be clever enough to select such a tree. A new nest may often
be recognized by the presence of fresh chips on the ground around the
tree, as the birds are not very particular about removing them.
The male sometimes digs out another shallower hole near the nesting
tree, which he uses as a sleeping place. Usually a fresh hole is
made each season, but I have seen occupied holes that were very much
weathered, as if they had been occupied for more than one season; in
such cases, the cavity may be deepened somewhat and the bottom covered
with fresh chips. I once found a pair of these woodpeckers excavating
their domicile, which they later abandoned, as I found on a later visit
that the hole was partly full of water and sap. They are not always
successful in their first attempt, for this and other reasons, and may
have to start two or three holes before they find just the conditions
they want. The eggs are laid on a soft bed of fresh chips at the bottom
of the cavity and are usually half buried in it; no nesting material is
carried in.
_Eggs._--The hairy woodpecker lays three to six eggs, but four seems
to be the commonest number. The eggs vary in shape from oval to
elliptical-oval, usually more nearly oval. The shell is smooth and
often quite glossy. The color is pure white, but in fresh eggs the
yolk shows through the translucent shell, giving the egg a beautiful
orange-pink color. The measurements of 47 eggs average 23.81 by 18.04
millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure =29.50= by
18.80, 28.70 by =18.90=, and =20.57= by =16.26= millimeters.
_Young._--Only one brood is raised in a season, but, if the nest is
robbed, the female will lay a second set after an interval of 12 or 14
days, and sometimes even a third set; often subsequent layings may be
in the same nest hole.
Bendire (1895) says:
The duties of incubation are divided between the sexes
and last about two weeks. The young when first hatched
are repulsive-looking creatures, blind and naked, with
enormously large heads, and ugly protuberances at the base
of the bill, resembling a reptile more than a bird. They
are totally helpless for some days, and can not stand;
but they soon learn to climb. They are fed by the parents
by regurgitation of their food, which is the usual way in
which the young of most Woodpeckers are fed when first
hatched. * * * The young remain in the nest about three
weeks. When disturbed they utter a low, purring noise,
which reminds me somewhat of that made by bees when
swarming, and when a little older they utter a soft “puirr,
puirr.” Even after leaving the nest they are assiduously
cared for by both parents for several weeks, until able to
provide for themselves.
_Plumages._--The young hairy, like all other young woodpeckers, is
hatched naked, and the juvenal plumage is assumed while in the nest, so
that when the young birds emerge they are fully fledged. In the juvenal
plumage the sexes are sometimes much alike, though oftener there is
a decided difference. In both sexes the bill is decidedly smaller,
weaker, and more pointed than in the adult; the color pattern is almost
exactly like that of the adult, but the plumage is softer and fluffier;
the white markings are more or less tinged with yellowish, the two
inner primaries are dwarfed, and the innermost white tail feather is
usually tipped with black. The colored markings in the crowns of both
sexes are very variable in color and in extent. L. L. Snyder (1923)
has made a careful study of the crown markings of young hairy and
downy woodpeckers of both sexes. He found that 90 percent of the young
male hairies had more or less red, pinkish, or yellowish markings in
the crowns, and only about 14 percent of the young females were so
marked. But only 10 percent of the young males and about 43 percent of
the young females had white markings only on a black crown; and about
43 percent of the young females had the entire crown black. There is
great individual variation in the amount and in the distribution of
these colors; the white spots are often mixed with the other colors;
the reddish and yellowish colors may invade nearly the whole crown,
exist in one or two large patches, or appear on only a few scattered
feathers.
The juvenal plumage is worn but a short time; the molt into the first
winter plumage is accomplished between July and October. This first
winter plumage is much like that of the adult in both sexes, but the
white spots are not quite so pure white, and the red nuchal patch
of the male is duller and often interrupted. Adults have a complete
postnuptial molt in August and September and perhaps a partial
prenuptial molt in spring.
_Food._--Various studies of the food habits of the hairy woodpeckers
show that these birds are among our most useful birds and especially
valuable as protectors of our forest and shade trees and orchards.
More than 75 percent of their food consists of injurious insects,
while the amount of useful insects and cultivated fruits that they
destroy is insignificant. Prof. F. E. L. Beal (1911) has published
the most exhaustive report on this subject, based on the study of 382
stomachs collected during every month in the year and from many parts
of the range of the species, including practically all of the races.
He says: “In the first analysis the food divides into 77.67 percent
of animal matter and 22.33 of vegetable. The animal food consists of
insects, with a few spiders and millepeds; the vegetable part is made
up of fruit, seeds, and a number of miscellaneous substances.” Of the
animal food, he says: “The largest item in the annual diet of the hairy
woodpecker consists of the larvae of cerambycid and buprestid beetles,
with a few lucanids and perhaps some other wood borers. These insects
constitute over 31 percent of the food and are eaten in every month
of the year. * * * One stomach contained 100 of these larvae and 83
and 50, respectively, were taken from two others. Of the 382 stomachs,
204, or 53 percent, contained these grubs, and 27 of them held no other
food. Other beetles amount to a little more than 9 percent.”
Ants rank second in importance, amounting to a little more than 17
percent, and are taken every month in the year; other Hymenoptera are
eaten in very small quantities and irregularly. Caterpillars are the
next most important item, many of them wood-boring species, amounting
to a little less than 10 percent. “Prof. F. M. Webster states that
he has seen a hairy woodpecker successfully peck a hole through the
parchment-like covering of the cocoon of a Cecropia moth and devour
the contents. On examining more than 20 cocoons in a grove of box
elders, he found only 2 uninjured,” according to Professor Beal (1911),
who adds that bugs (Hemiptera) and plant lice (aphids) form only a
small part of the food, and says: “Orthoptera, that is, grasshoppers,
crickets, and cockroaches, are rarely eaten by the hairy. A few
eggs, probably those of tree crickets, and the egg cases (oötheca)
of cockroaches, constitute the bulk of this food. These with a few
miscellaneous insects amount to a little more than 2 percent for the
year. Spiders with their cocoons of eggs, including one jointed spider
(Solpugidae), and a few millepeds, were eaten to the extent of about
3.5 percent, which completes the quota of animal food.”
He says further:
The vegetable food of the hairy woodpecker may be
considered under four heads: Fruit, grain, seeds, and
miscellaneous vegetable substances. Fruit amounts to 5.22
percent of the food, and was contained in 54 stomachs, of
which 13 held what was diagnosed as domestic varieties,
and 41 contained wild species. Rubus seeds (blackberries
or raspberries) were identified in 4 stomachs, and were
counted as domestic fruit, but it is perhaps more probable
that they were wild. * * * Of wild fruit 18 species were
identified. It constitutes the great bulk of the fruit
eaten, and is nearly all of varieties not useful to man.
Corn was the only grain discovered in the food. It was
found in 10 stomachs, and amounted to 1.37 percent. * * *
The seed of poison ivy and poison sumac (_Rhus radicans_
and _R. vernix_) were found in 17 stomachs, and as they
usually pass through the alimentary canal uninjured,
the birds do some harm by scattering the seeds of these
noxious plants. * * * Cambium, or the inner bark of trees,
was identified in 23 stomachs. Evidently the hairy does
but little damage by denuding trees of their bark. Mast,
made up of acorns, hazelnuts, and beechnuts, was found in
50 stomachs. It was mostly taken in the fall and winter
months, and appears to be quite a favorite food during the
cooler part of the year.
Illustrating the quantities of insects eaten by individual birds, F.
H. King (1883), Wisconsin, writes: “Of twenty-one specimens examined,
eleven had eaten fifty-two wood-boring larvae; five, thirteen geometrid
caterpillars; ten, one hundred and five ants; six, ten beetles; two,
two cockroaches; two, nine oötheca of cockroaches; two, two moths;
one, a small snail; one, green corn; one, a wild cherry; and one, red
elder berries. * * * One of the above birds had in its stomach eleven
wood-boring larvae (Lamides?) and twelve geometers; another, thirteen
larvae of long-horn beetles and four cockroach oötheca; another, nine
wood-boring larvae; and two others together had three wood-boring
larvae, and nine larvae not coleopterous.”
V. A. Alderson (1890) published the following interesting note: “Last
summer, potato bugs covered every patch of potatoes in Marathon County,
(being my home county,) Wis. One of my friends here, found his patch an
exception, and therefore took pains to find the reason, and observed a
hairy woodpecker, making frequent visits to the potato field and going
from there to a large pine stub a little distance away.
“After observing this for about six weeks, he made a visit to the pine
stub and found, on inspection, a large hole in its side about fifteen
feet up. He took his axe and cut down the stub, split it open, and
found inside, over two bushels of bugs. All had their heads off and
bodies intact.”
The woodpecker’s method of locating tree-boring larvae and its
specialized apparatus for extracting them are so well described by Dr.
Thomas S. Roberts (1932) that I cannot do better than to quote him, as
follows:
The hairy woodpecker possesses in its tongue one of the
most remarkably developed and perfectly adapted instruments
for extracting the tree larvae from their tunnels. The
tip is a rigid, barbed spear and can be thrust out to
an astonishing distance by reason of greatly elongated,
posterior horns which pass up over the back and top of
the head and run together down in front of the right
eye, around which they are coiled for almost the entire
circumference of the socket! So that, the drilling into
the tunnel accomplished, the tongue darts out, the inner
ends uncoil, the spear transfixes the grub, and with little
ado the larva is dragged from its retreat into the bill of
the bird, pounded perhaps for a moment or two, swallowed
forthwith or carried to the young, and this most perfectly
contrived and highly efficient engine is once more ready
for action. There has been considerable discussion as to
how the woodpeckers locate the larvae, active or dormant,
which are hidden deeply in the wood and for which they
drill so unerringly. All the special senses of birds are
very highly developed, and it seems probable that in this
case hearing, touch, and smell all may play a part. The
active grub, as it crunches the wood, makes a sound that
would surely be audible to a bird with its keen sense of
hearing. The tunnel produces a cavity which would give both
a different sound and feeling on tapping over it. Such
things as grubs have a strong odor, and it is probable that
this plays a part also.
Forbush (1927) says: “Maurice Thompson asserts that the hairy
woodpecker strikes its bill into the wood and then holds the point of
one mandible for a moment in the dent thus made. He believes that the
vibrations produced by the insect in the wood are then conveyed through
the beak and skull of the bird to its brain.”
In winter this woodpecker comes readily to suet or meat bones hung up
on our trees or feeding stations to attract birds. It is also said
to feed on the carcasses of animals left in the woods by trappers or
hunters and to pick the fat from fresh skins that the trapper has hung
up to dry. Although often called a sapsucker, there is practically no
evidence that it ever does any injury to trees in this way; any sap or
cambium eaten is probably taken incidentally in its search for insects.
_Behavior._--The hairy woodpecker is a much shier, more retiring bird
than the confiding little downy; it is also more active and noisier; it
usually will not allow such close approach but will dodge around the
trunk of a tree or fly away, if an intruder comes too near, bounding
through the air in a series of graceful dips and rebounds. Rex Brasher
(1926) followed one for four hours that alighted “on two hundred and
eighteen different trees, an average of nearly one a minute! The
longest time he remained on one tree was seven minutes. This was a
dead chestnut with most of the bark still adhering. By far the larger
proportion of the trees were old chestnuts, and under their loosely
attached covering he found most successful hunting. Rough-bark species
were preferred--chestnuts, oaks, old maples and hickories, about in the
order named. Smooth-barked ones received little notice.”
Dr. Morris Gibbs (1902) says: “Have my readers carefully watched a
Woodpecker leave its perch on the trunk or limb? The bird throws itself
backward from its vertical position by a leg spring, together with a
tail movement, turns in the air in the fraction of a second and is
sweeping away to the next perch. Arriving at the next resting place it
makes a single counteracting stroke of the wings against the air, and
perches lightly on the bark of limb or trunk.”