are found on both living and dead shrub oaks, long-leafed
pines, loblolly pine, sycamore, sour gum and sweet gum.
They work on both trunks and limbs but usually at low
heights, from the ground up to twenty feet above. On a
vertical surface these birds work up, spiraling it and
tapping it as they go. They move by a series of short
hops, propping themselves each time with their tails. When
hopping lightly along a horizontal limb they still use
their tails as props. Perhaps their most astonishing feat
is to spiral horizontal limbs, and to cling beneath them
and hammer them with their backs down. Sometimes they work
their way up to the very tip of slender shoots.
Even in a heavy wind they cling to the violently swaying
twigs while eating, but they stay only a short time before
flying to a tree trunk to perch and rest before trying it
again. * * *
The flight of these birds is strong and undulating, with
fast beating wings, and generally only from one tree to
the next. Where the trees are not very close together,
they swoop down to within a few feet of the ground and
then fly with nearly level flight until they glide up to
their next stopping place. Where they have to fly out
across intervening open fields their flight becomes more
undulatory, at times deeply so.
DRYOBATES VILLOSUS HARRISI (Audubon)
HARRIS’S WOODPECKER
PLATES 4, 5
HABITS
The range of this well-marked subspecies is now restricted to the humid
coast belt from southern British Columbia southward to Humboldt County,
Calif. In 1895, Bendire wrote:
Until within the last few years all the Hairy Woodpeckers
from the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains to the
Pacific coast have been considered as belonging to this
subspecies. * * *
The breeding range of this race, as now considered, is a
very limited one, and is probably coextensive with its
geographical distribution. It is apparently confined to
the immediate vicinity of the coast, and is not found at
any great distance inland. Among the specimens collected
by me at Fort Klamath, Oregon (mostly winter birds),
there are two which might be called intermediates between
this and the more recently separated _Dryobates villosus
hyloscopus_, but the majority are clearly referable to
the latter. In the typical Harris’s woodpecker the under
parts are much darker, a smoky brown, in fact; it is also
somewhat larger and very readily distinguishable from
the much lighter-colored and somewhat smaller Cabanis’s
woodpecker.
Dawson and Bowles (1909) say: “Doctor Cooper judged the Harris to be
the most abundant Woodpecker in Western Washington; and this, with
the possible exception of the Flicker (_Colaptes cafer saturatior_),
is still true. The bird ventures well out upon the eastern slopes of
the Cascade Mountains, and is found sparingly in the higher mountain
valleys; but its favorite resorts are burns and the edges of clearings,
rather than the depths of the woods.”
Johnson A. Neff (1928) quotes Dr. I. N. Gabrielson as saying: “The
Harris woodpecker is found throughout western Oregon from the western
slope of the Cascades to the coast, altho in the Rogue River Valley
some specimens which are close to ‘orius’ have been taken. I have one
labeled ‘orius’ by Dr. H. C. Oberholser, also have typical Harris from
this district, so that this is probably the region of intergradation
between these two forms.”
Harris’s woodpecker, like many other races of the humid Northwest coast
region, is darkly colored, one of the most easily recognized of all the
hairy woodpeckers. Even in Audubon’s day it was recognized, described,
figured, and named by him in honor of his friend Edward Harris. Ridgway
(1914) describes it as “similar to _D. v. hyloscopus_, but under parts
(including lateral rectrices) light drab or buffy drab-gray, instead of
white or nearly white, the head-stripes and stripe on back also usually
more or less suffused with the same color, often uniformly light drab;
average size slightly larger.”
_Courtship._--Theed Pearse (1934) gives us the following interesting
description of the courtship display of this woodpecker:
There were two males on the limb of a small cedar and my
attention was first drawn to them by their note, which is
very similar to the flicker’s “wickety” note but softer,
and might almost be described as “caressingly soft.” Both
birds were calling.
The displaying bird would draw in its head so that no neck
was apparent, with beak pointed outwards and upwards and
would then slowly swing the upper part of the body from
side to side, thereby bringing into play the red nape
marking. Once the bird very rapidly lifted its wings into
an upright position, at other times there was a quivering
flicking motion of the wings as they lay against the sides.
The two birds flew to another branch, settling side by
side and instantly each froze, the neck drawn in and the
beak pointed upwards. They were perched sideways on the
branch and were displaying the white markings in the tail
which each of them would slightly spread and turn out
(to one side). The feathers of the back were at the same
time hunched up as though to show up the white markings
there also. They did this several times before flying off
together.
_Nesting._--Although this is evidently a common bird within its
restricted range, surprisingly little has appeared in print regarding
its nesting habits. Authentic eggs seem to be very rare in collections;
most of the eggs in collections, of which I have the records, that are
labeled _harrisi_, prove to be referable to one of the neighboring
subspecies.
D. E. Brown writes to me:
Its nesting cavities may be at any height from 4 feet to
well over 100 feet from the ground. I found a nest 8 feet
up in an 8-inch dead fir stub in a dry open locality. The
female flushed from the nest, and the date was just right
for fresh eggs, May 6. The cavity was carefully opened. It
was 16 inches deep and contained a single egg. This egg
was so fresh and the shell so clear that the yolk could be
plainly seen. The cavity was carefully repaired with bark
from the stub, held in place with black thread. Both birds
were near all this time, complaining loudly. I returned in
five days. The bark was still in place, but the egg was
gone. The dust from the decaying stub, where the egg had
been, was very dry, and I am of the opinion that the parent
bird had removed the egg.
G. D. Sprot has sent me a beautiful photograph (pl. 4) of a nesting
site of this woodpecker in a dead alder stump in a coniferous forest
clearing, near Mill Bay, Vancouver Island, taken May 23, 1928.
Dawson and Bowles (1909) say:
The nest of this bird is usually placed well up in a small
dead fir tree in some burn or slashing on dry ground.
It is about ten inches deep and has no lining save fine
chips, among which the crystal white eggs, four or five in
number, lie partially imbedded. Incubation is begun from
the last week in April to the last week in May, according
to altitude, and but one brood is raised in a season.
These Woodpeckers are exceptionally valiant in defense of
their young, the male in particular becoming almost beside
himself with rage at the appearance of an enemy near the
home nest.
S. F. Rathbun sends me the following note on a Harris’s woodpecker that
made an attempt to dig a nesting hole in a small young fir topped about
10 feet up: “The tree had been cut off so that it could be used as one
of the supports of a cross piece to which a swing was attached. The
woodpecker began to dig a hole in the topped upright, and the owner of
the place called me up and wanted to know what the bird was and what
it was up to. I told him all about it and suggested that he keep away
from the stub. Two weeks later, I asked him how the bird was getting
on. He said at first the bird was busy digging away every day, but of
late seemed to have something the matter with it, for ‘lately every
day it just sat with its head sticking out of the hole and did no work
on it.’ I cut a piece from the edge of the entrance and quickly found
out. When the crossbar for the swing had been nailed to the sapling,
a 10-inch spike was used to hold it; and this had gone nearly through
the sapling. The woodpecker ran into this spike, as it was digging the
hole, after progressing 6 inches or so downward. It did not seem able
to go around the spike, although it had enlarged the cavity an inch on
each side of the heavy nail and had cut away the wood for 2 inches or
more below the spike. But the job proved to be too much for the bird,
and it eventually gave up and disappeared. I told my friend to pull
the spike and maybe next year the bird would be back. He followed my
suggestion, and, the following spring, a Harris’s woodpecker showed up,
dug a hole in the stub, and raised its young. This was repeated the
next spring after, and then no return of the bird. So quite likely it
may have been the same woodpecker.”
_Eggs._--Harris’s woodpecker apparently lays four or five eggs,
probably seldom fewer or more. Bendire (1895) was evidently unable to
locate any properly identified eggs of this race, and I have not fared
much better. The eggs are probably indistinguishable from the eggs of
other hairy woodpeckers of similar size. The measurements of 34 eggs
average 25.29 by 18.91 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes
measure =27.9= by 19.6, 25.46 by =20.32=, =22.86= by 18.29, and 23.5 by
=17.5= millimeters.
_Food._--J. A. Neff (1928) says:
A total of 57 stomachs of hairy woodpeckers were taken for
the present study, over three fourths of them of the Harris
type. The months were represented by fairly even numbers of
specimens. Analysis of these stomachs shows a considerable
variation from the results of Professor Beal’s California
studies. The total animal food averaged 82.00 percent,
while vegetable matter made up the other 18.00 percent.
The larvae of wood-boring beetles, Cerambycids and
Buprestids, composed 49.00 percent of the total. This total
is unexceeded in Federal studies of birds. Since these two
groups of borers include species doing enormous damage to
both forest and ornamental trees, as well as to orchards,
this item of food alone almost settles the question of the
utility of having woodpeckers. * * *
The vegetable food was of little value economically.
Fruits, of small wild varieties, totaled 6.00 percent, and
seeds, mostly of coniferous trees, averaged 12.00 percent.
_Behavior._--Taylor and Shaw (1927) made the following interesting
observation:
As is well known, western Washington is a region of copious
rainfall. During the frequent downpours one can not help
speculating on the manner in which the different birds and
mammals avoid injury from the damp and chill of the storm.
The thick foliage of firs and hemlocks is well suited, in
many instances, to serve as a thatched roof: and in the
deep woods there are many big branches and large logs under
which birds--and mammals too--find dry retreats. During
the heaviest rain of the summer a Harris woodpecker was
frightened from its shelter beneath a huge log in the heavy
forest of Tahoma Creek Canyon. Here the bird was keeping
perfectly dry. One can imagine its displeasure at being
driven out from its comfortable refuge into the drenching
rain.
_Winter._--D. E. Brown says in his notes: “Early in fall Harris’s
woodpecker very often excavates a cavity that is its winter home. It
can be found there every night and quite often in the daytime on stormy
days. It is not always secure in this retreat. Such a cavity was made
in a partly dead stub, about 20 feet high, just back of my house.
Frequent visits were made to find out how much the nest was used. At
first the bird, a male, would fly to a nearby tree when I rapped on the
stub, but soon it contented itself with just coming to the opening.
One time, while I was in plain sight of the stub, a western pileated
woodpecker alighted at the cavity and proceeded to open it up, which it
did clear to the bottom in less than three minutes. It had taken the
Harris about a week to dig it out.”
Dawson and Bowles (1909) say: “The Harris woodpecker visits the
winter troupes only in a patronizing way. He is far too restless and
independent to be counted a constant member of any little gossip club,
and, except briefly during the mating season and in the family circle,
he is rarely to be seen in the company of his own kind.”
DRYOBATES VILLOSUS HYLOSCOPUS Cabanis and Heine
CABANIS’S WOODPECKER
HABITS
The hairy woodpeckers of the coast district of California from
Mendocino County southward, the mountains of southern California,
and the southern Sierra Nevada, as far east as White Mountains of
California, are now known by the above name. This race is somewhat
smaller than _harrisi_ and decidedly smaller than _orius_, its
neighboring races to the northward; its under parts are much lighter
colored than in _harrisi_; these parts are described by Ridgway
(1914) as “dull grayish or brownish white or pale drab-grayish or
buffy grayish.” This and the Sierra woodpecker (_orius_) seem to
form connecting links between the dark-breasted _harrisi_ and the
white-breasted Rocky Mountain forms, _monticola_ and _leucothorectis_,
both of which are decidedly larger also.
Dr. Joseph Grinnell (1908) says of the distribution of this woodpecker
in the San Bernardino Mountains in southern California: “This was the
most widely distributed species of woodpecker in the region, occurring
throughout the timbered portions, irrespective of zones. It was common
from Santa Ana Cañon to the summit of Sugarloaf, 9,800 feet, and nearly
to timber line on San Gorgonio peak. On the desert side the species was
noted as low as Cactus Flat, 6,000 feet, where one was seen in some
golden oaks in a ravine, August 16, 1905.”
_Courtship._--The drumming of woodpeckers in the spring on some
resonant limb or tree trunk is an important part of the courtship
urge, as a warning to any rival, or as a call to a possible mate. Dr.
Grinnell (1908) shows how the manner of drumming may also serve as
a recognition call; he says: “The resonant rattling drum identified
this species from any other of this region. Near Dry lake, 9,000
feet altitude, dead tamarack pines were selected for this purpose,
and on June 23, 1905, I listened for many minutes to a remarkable
demonstration of this kind. Different branches were tattoed in rapid
succession, so that a xylophone-like variety of tones was produced,
very impressive and far-carrying through the otherwise quiet forest.”
_Nesting._--Major Bendire (1895) writes:
In California Cabanis’ Woodpecker is common in the
mountains, but in the lowlands in the southern part of this
State Mr. F. Stephens considers it a rather rare summer
resident. He found it breeding in a cottonwood tree, near
San Bernardino, on March 21, 1885. Mr. Lyman Belding took
several nests of this subspecies in Calaveras County, in
the Sierra Nevadas; in one, found on June 6, 1879, which
had been excavated in a dead pine stump, 12 feet from the
ground, the eggs, three in number, were on the point of
hatching. In his notes he says: “I scared the female from
it and prevented her return by inserting a stick, the end
of which protruded for several feet. When she found she
could not enter she gave several cries, which brought
the male, who hopped up and down the stick a few times,
striking it with his bill and screaming angrily, pausing
occasionally, and apparently deliberating on the best
method of extracting it.” Another nest, found by him on
July 10, 1880, was located only 3 feet from the ground, and
contained young which were still in the nest on the 20th.
Mr. Charles A. Allen informs me that along the Sacramento
River, in California, it breeds in sycamores and willows,
but that it is not common there.
_Eggs._--Major Bendire (1895) says:
The number of eggs laid to a set varies from three to six;
those of four are by far the most common; sets of five are
only occasionally met with, while sets of six are very
unusual. * * * The eggs lie on the fine chips left in the
bottom of the cavity, and are occasionally well packed into
these, so that only about one-half of the egg is visible.
They resemble the eggs of _Dryobates villosus_ in color,
but those of an elliptical ovate shape are more common than
the oval and elliptical ovals, averaging, therefore, more
in length, while there is proportionally less difference in
their short diameter.
The measurements of 23 eggs average 24.49 by 18.38 millimeters; the
eggs showing the four extremes measure =25.7= by 18.2, 24.2 by =19.7=,
=22.8= by 18.1, and 24.9 by =16.5= millimeters.
_Young._--Mrs. Irene G. Wheelock (1904) says: “Both sexes share the
labors of excavating, brooding the eggs, and feeding the young.
Incubation lasts about fifteen days, and the young remain nearly four
weeks in the nest, being fed most of that time by regurgitation. After
leaving they are fed by the parents for at least two weeks, and usually
return to the nest at night to sleep.”
_Food._--W. Leon Dawson (1923) writes: “Nearly half of the Cabanis
Woodpecker’s food consists of the larvae of wood-boring beetles
(the _Cerambycidae_ and _Buprestidae_); and of the remainder the
caterpillars of various injurious moths form a large per cent. Wild
raspberries and blackberries are eaten in summer, and certain hardy
fruits, such as cornel berries, acorns, and the pits of the islay, or
evergreen cherry (_Prunus ilicifolia_), eke out the winter sustenance.”
Referring to its manner of feeding, Milton P. Skinner says in his
notes: “On August 10, 1933, I saw a Cabanis working on both the trunk
and the limbs of a small Douglas fir. It worked all around a horizontal
limb and really seemed to be under the limb more than above. It also
worked on upright branches as well. I have also seen a Cabanis feeding
on the bark of a lodgepole pine. One day I found one on a dead black
oak, scaling off dead bark to get at the insects beneath. So far as I
can tell, these birds, in the Sequoia National Park, seem to prefer to
pick food from the surface and furrows in the bark, and do not bore
into the bark and wood as much as other woodpeckers. During my work
among the Big Trees, I noticed that these birds seem to avoid the
sequoia’s bark; but at one place I found a living tree with many holes
bored in the old wood of its charred base, where it was unprotected by
bark.”
_Behavior._--Mr. Skinner’s notes say that “this woodpecker has quite a
few mannerisms of its own. One, seen flying across a meadow, went first
to the limbs of Douglas firs, then to a small dead limb of a sequoia,
then to the limb of a fir, and then to the trunk of the same fir. It
perched lengthwise of limb and trunk each time. And this procedure was
followed again and again on different days. Usually the Cabanis perches
crosswise on a horizontal limb, especially when resting or preening,
but lengthwise on erect, or nearly erect, trunks and limbs when feeding.
“Although this woodpecker almost always flies to the exact spot it
selects, its flight through the forest is undulatory. The undulations
are due to the fact that it progresses by a series of wing beats. At
the end of each series, it seems to actually close its wings and shoot
forward with the impetus gained.”
DRYOBATES VILLOSUS MONTICOLA Anthony
ROCKY MOUNTAIN HAIRY WOODPECKER
HABITS
This large, white-breasted hairy woodpecker inhabits the Rocky Mountain
region, in the Canadian and Transition Zones, from central British
Columbia and Montana southward to eastern Utah and northern New Mexico,
and eastward to western South Dakota and western Nebraska. Ridgway
(1914) characterizes it as “similar, in large size and whiteness of
under parts, to _D. v. septentrionalis_, but with white spots on
wing-coverts much reduced in size or number, or altogether wanting.” It
evidently intergrades with _septentrionalis_ in Montana and Wyoming
and probably with the more western races west of the Rocky Mountains.
Milton P. Skinner tells me that in the Yellowstone National Park it
“occurs at all elevations from the lowest at 5,500 feet to timberline
at 9,500 feet above sea level, but never far from a tree of some kind.
It is a resident bird here but moves down from the mountain heights at
the approach of winter.”
Aretas A. Saunders (1921) says of its status in Montana: “A common
permanent resident throughout the western half of the state in the
mountains. Winters mainly in the valleys in cottonwood groves, but does
not breed there. * * * The eastern limits of its range are evidently
in the eastern foothills of the mountains. Just what form breeds in
the more eastern mountain ranges is not definitely determined. In the
mountains this bird has been recorded by all observers. It is common
everywhere, and usually the commonest of the mountain woodpeckers.”
_Nesting._--The following remarks by Major Bendire (1895), under
_hyloscopus_, evidently refer to this subspecies: “Mr. Denis Gale found
it breeding in Boulder County, Colorado, on May 28, 1886, in a live
aspen tree, at an altitude of about 8,500 feet. The nest contained five
eggs, in which incubation was somewhat advanced. Mr. William G. Smith
also reports it as common in Colorado, coming down into the valleys in
winter. He says it is the earliest of the Woodpeckers to breed, that it
commences nesting in the latter part of April, and usually excavates
its holes in old dead pines, frequently at a considerable distance from
the ground, and that he has seen full-grown young by June 1.”
J. K. Jensen (1923) says of this woodpecker, in northern Santa Fe
County, N. Mex.:
Quite common in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, from 8,000
to 11,000 feet. June 21, 1920, I found a nest thirty feet
up in a large quaking aspen. This tree stands on the edge
of a place where an avalanche has plowed its way down
through the timber on the mountain side, depositing trees
and rocks in a great heap for hundreds of feet around the
tree. The nest contained young, and judging from the noise
they made, were quite well developed. The parent birds were
very noisy.
May 22, 1921, I made my way through four feet of snow to
the same tree. A new nest had been made, and the female
flew off when I was about 150 feet away. I cut into the
nest and found a set of four eggs on which incubation had
just commenced. The altitude at this point is 11,000 feet.
May 26, 1922, I found a nest with young about seventy-five
feet up in an aspen. This was in Santa Fe Canyon at an
altitude of 8,000 feet.
_Eggs._--The eggs of the Rocky Mountain hairy woodpecker are similar to
the eggs of other hairy woodpeckers of similar size. The measurements
of 33 eggs average 24.89 by 18.49 millimeters; the eggs showing the
four extremes measure =28.08= by 18.03, 27.0 by =20.1=, =23.37= by
17.78, and 24.38 by =17.27= millimeters.
_Food._--Mr. Skinner says, in his notes, that this woodpecker “seeks
its food on the trunks of lodgepole and _flexilis_ pines, cedars,
firs, aspens, willows, and even electric-light and telephone poles; it
prefers dead and diseased trees and stubs to work on, probably because
of more borers and grubs. At Basin, and over 7,000 feet elevation,
I found a female where I could watch her, only 5 feet away from the
lodgepole trunk on which she was working. She worked down, tapping
here and there as she went. Whenever a tap revealed a borer, she
scaled off the bark with quick right and left strokes, having a slight
lever motion at the end, and always secured from one to six bark-borer
grubs. Evidently the tap told her whether it was worth while to search
further, for she never made a mistake and performed no useless labor.”
J. A. Munro (1930) writes: “During the winter of 1928-29 a male hairy
woodpecker frequently was seen feeding on Virginia creeper berries in
competition with several red-shafted flickers. On one occasion the same
bird visited an apple tree, attracted by a few apples that still clung
to the bare branches. Standing crossways on a branch, in the ordinary
position of a perching bird, he rapidly stabbed his bill downward into
the top of an apple. After doing this several times he flew to another
portion of the tree and repeated the performance.”
DRYOBATES VILLOSUS PICOIDEUS Osgood
QUEEN CHARLOTTE WOODPECKER
HABITS