up a tree trunk. It stopped to knock off a piece of bark
with a sidewise (glancing) blow of the heavy bill. This
was repeated several times. Then the bird began to drill
in earnest and the tapping could be heard by a person
more than thirty meters distant. The blows were delivered
rapidly, about two per second. Between three and five
minutes were required to bore through the bark, in this
instance twenty millimeters thick. Then after a few moments
of probing the bill was withdrawn and was seen to hold a
white larva which was quickly eaten. * * *
On one tree thirty-five centimeters in diameter an area of
bark thirty by sixty centimeters was punctured completely
through by twenty-two holes each leading to the tunnel
of a wood-borer. * * * The holes were twelve by twelve
millimeters across by twenty deep. It appeared to the
observer * * * that many of the still living trees in that
locality had been saved from complete destruction by the
insects, by the activity of this woodpecker.
Manly Hardy wrote to Major Bendire (1895) that, in Maine, “it seems
to feed entirely on such wood worms as attack spruce, pine, and other
soft-wood timber that has been fire-killed. Specimens are so abundant
in such places that I once shot the heads off of six in a few minutes
when short of material for a stew.”
Some dead pine trees that had been regularly frequented by these
woodpeckers, on the Kennard estate, were cut down; and the birds,
seeing their favorite trees gone, continued to search for food on the
wood piles made from these trees.
_Behavior._--Most observers agree that the Arctic three-toed woodpecker
is very tame and unsuspicious, working very quietly on a tree trunk for
long periods, without moving about much, and allowing a close approach;
perhaps, as it lives most of its life in remote northern forests, where
men are scarce, it has not learned to fear human beings. Manly Hardy
considered it the tamest and stupidest of the woodpeckers found in
Maine. Major Bendire (1895) says:
“Like the hairy woodpecker, they are persistent drummers, rattling away
for minutes at a time on some dead limb, and are especially active
during the mating season, in April. I have located more than one
specimen by traveling in the direction of the sound when it was fully
half a mile away. * * * Its flight is swift, greatly undulating, and is
often protracted for considerable distances.”
Dr. Lewis says in his notes: “When one bird relieved the other in
guarding the cavity, the bird taking over guard duty flew low toward
the stub and swerved sharply upward, with widespread tail, to alight
near the opening.”
_Voice._--Dr. Lewis (MS.) records the common cry of this woodpecker as
“_tchuk_, often shortened and sharpened to _kip_.” He also says: “A
male mounted a stub, about 25 feet from me, and there, in plain view,
scolded me vigorously with a sharp note like _kuk_, repeated about
once a second for some minutes. Each time the note was uttered there
was a flash of whitish at the bird’s eye, as though it winked with
each utterance. It was also heard to utter a rattling note, apparently
another kind of scolding cry.”
Francis H. Allen tells me that the “call-note resembles the
_cluck_ used in New England to start a horse; it has a ‘woodeny’
quality.” Ralph Hoffmann (1927) says that “in the breeding season
the Arctic Three-toed Woodpecker makes a very loud rolling sound by
drumming on dry limbs and when concerned about the nest a shrill
_kick-er-uck-a-kick_. The ordinary call is _tschick_ or _tschuck_.” A
note of greeting, possibly part of a love-making performance, is thus
described by Mr. Achilles (1906): “Several times when the female was
getting grubs in the dead spruce near the hole, the male would fly from
some distant tree and alight near her. She would see him coming and,
just about as he was about to alight, would spread her wings and utter
a ‘whe-e-e-e-ee.’ This call, which was its loudest at its middle point,
rose and then fell to the same pitch at which it was begun.”
Rev. C. W. G. Eifrig (1906) heard a queer sound that “was as if
produced by pulling out the end of a clock spring and suddenly
releasing it, producing a wiry, humming sound. The author of it proved
to be a male of this woodpecker. In the course of the half hour that I
watched him he showed himself master of quite a repertoire of notes and
would-be songs. When flying he would say: _chut chut_ and then rattle
like a Kingfisher. When hammering on a tree and preening himself, he
would intersperse those actions by chuckling: _duck, duck, duck_.”
_Field marks._--All the three-toed woodpeckers can be easily recognized
by the yellow patch on the crown of the adult male and by more or less
yellow in the crowns or young birds of both sexes. The crown patch
of the adult male _arcticus_ is larger and extends farther forward
than that of _tridactylus_. But the best field mark for the Arctic
three-toed woodpecker is the solid-black back, without any white
markings, and in the female the solid-black crown as well; the dorsal
aspect, when the bird is clinging to a tree trunk, often appears wholly
black. The white stripe on the side of the head, below the eye, is much
wider in _arcticus_ than in _tridactylus_, and the latter has the back
transversely banded with white.
_Enemies._--Mr. Achilles (1906) relates the following:
In the course of the morning, two red-breasted nuthatches
tormented the woodpeckers for fifteen minutes. * * * They
hovered around the hole with drooping wings, holding their
tails up like wrens. One of them finally ventured into the
hole so far that just his tail was protruding. They would
fly away when the parents approached the hole, but would
return as soon as the nest was unprotected. After some time
the male woodpecker went into the hole, evidently intending
to peck them in case they should look into it. During the
three minutes he remained in the hole, he managed to keep
from looking out for one straight minute. Nevertheless,
he was greatly agitated, and would look out every few
seconds to see if the nuthatches were approaching,--his
crown-patch showing brightly. At last the male nuthatch
came to the edge of the hole, whereat the woodpecker made
an unsuccessful attempt to peck his opponent, afterward
flying out with a rush, and chasing the nuthatch for some
distance on the wing.
Soon after that four Canada jays approached, and one of them ventured
near the nest hole, but the woodpecker and a hermit thrush succeeded in
driving him and his companions away, and they did not return.
Joseph Dixon (1927) tells of an attempt by a black bear to rob a nest
of young Arctic three-toed woodpeckers:
This nest was located only four feet above the ground in a
large live lodgepole pine. My attention was first attracted
to the locality by the unusually vigorous scolding of the
parent woodpeckers. A closer approach revealed the cause of
the excitement.
A bear had located the nest, probably through the noise of
the young woodpeckers, which were old enough to come to
the nest entrance to receive food, and which squealed with
anticipation of a meal any time any bird, animal or person
came close to the nest tree. In an endeavor to get at the
young in the nest, the bear had bitten out slabs of green
wood twelve inches long, two inches wide, and one-quarter
of an inch thick. The muddy stains around the inside of
the nest entrance showed that the bear had thrust his nose
into the hole repeatedly. But after gnawing over an area
10 by 10 inches on the tree trunk to a depth of more than
an inch, the bear gave it up as a bad job. Had the nest
been in an old stump, the outcome would probably have been
different. This offers a reasonable explanation of the
tendency of certain woodpeckers to nest in living trees.
Mr. Kennard tells in his notes of a female hummingbird that attacked
one of these woodpeckers: “Several times she swooped down at the
woodpecker, who, quick as a flash, would dodge around the trunk and out
of her way.”
_Winter._--The Arctic three-toed woodpecker is normally mainly resident
in winter throughout most of its breeding range; it is a hardy bird
and its food supply is available at all seasons, the grubs on which it
feeds remaining in the wood for more than one season. Probably a few
wander southward nearly every winter, and there have been several heavy
flights of these birds into the Northeastern States, which it is not
easy to explain. Dr. Josselyn Van Tyne (1926) has given a full account
of one of these invasions, to which the reader is referred. Mr. Forbush
(1927) writes:
It is difficult to determine exactly what causes these
unusual migrations, They are not forced by inclement
weather, for one at least has occurred in a mild winter.
* * * It seems probable that the unusual invasions of the
species into New England follow summers when its food has
been unusually abundant. An excessive food supply tends to
fecundity, and overbreeding naturally compels expansion
and induces migration, whether among the lower animals or
humankind. Since the above was written, Mr. Josselyn Van
Tyne has published a paper regarding the unusual flight
of this species in 1923 in which he advances a similar
explanation. He says that between 1909 and 1914 there was
an irruption of the spruce budworm in eastern Canada and
Maine which resulted in the death of many trees and a
consequent increase of bark-beetles and borers, followed
by an increase in the number of these woodpeckers. On the
other hand a scarcity of the usual food supply may cause
migration. A wet season with few fires in the woods or a
scarcity of insects (such as the spruce bud-moth) that kill
trees might, later, cause a migration.
Illustrating the length of the sojourn of these woodpeckers during the
winter of 1923-24, Dr. Van Tyne (1926) says:
The greatest concentration of these woodpeckers recorded at
any one point was on the estate of Mr. F. H. Kennard where
scores of dead and dying white pine afforded an abundance
of their special food. The first one seen was a male
collected on October 17. Another individual appeared by
October 20 and during the winter at least three males and
two females were accounted for, while all indications point
toward the actual presence of perhaps twice as many. The
most remarkable fact about this group of birds, however,
was the length of their stay, for both males and females
were seen as late as the middle of May and at least one
male stayed through the early part of June and was last
seen on June 12.
Other invasions are recorded by Mr. Forbush (1927) as follows: “A
great irruption of these birds occurred in the autumn of 1860. During
the following winter Mr. George O. Welch often saw as many as six or
eight at once in a piece of fire-killed timber in Lynn. * * * In the
autumn of 1925, there was a lesser movement, and many returned through
New England in the spring of 1926. In the autumn of 1926 another
considerable southward migration occurred.”
DISTRIBUTION
_Range._--North America south to the Central United States;
nonmigratory.
The range of the Arctic three-toed woodpecker extends =north= to
central Alaska (probably Tocatna Forks and Fairbanks); southern
Mackenzie (Fort Wrigley, Fort Providence, and Smith Portage); northern
Manitoba (Cochrane River and probably York Factory); Quebec (Richmond
Gulf, Godbout, and Madeline River); and Newfoundland (Nicholsville).
=East= to Newfoundland (Nicholsville); probably rarely Prince Edward
Island (Baddeck); eastern New Brunswick (Tabusintac); probably
rarely Nova Scotia (Advocate); Maine (Machias); and probably rarely
Massachusetts (Winchendon and Concord). =South= to probably rarely
Massachusetts (Concord); central Vermont (Pico Peak); southern Ontario
(Ottawa, Algonquin Park, and Sand Lake); northern Michigan (Au Sable
Valley, Blaney, and Huron Mountain); probably northern Wisconsin
(Kelley Brook and Star Lake); northern Minnesota (North Pacific
Junction, Itasca Park, and White Earth); probably southwestern South
Dakota (Elk Mountains); northwestern Wyoming (Yellowstone Park);
northwestern Montana (Glacier National Park and Fortine); northern
Idaho (Fort Sherman); and central California (Mona Lake and Bear
Valley). =West= to California. (Bear Valley, Lassen Peak, and Mount
Shasta); Oregon (Pinehurst and Fort Klamath); Washington (Bumping Lake
and probably Tiger); British Columbia (Arrow Lakes, Fort St. James,
Kispiox Valley, and Atlin); south-central Yukon (Six-mile River); and
Alaska (Chitina Moraine and probably Tocatna Forks).
During the winter season this species has been recorded =north= to
Alaska (Copper River); Mackenzie (Fort Simpson, Fort Rae, and Fort
Reliance); Manitoba (Grand Rapids); Ontario (Arnprior and Ottawa); New
Brunswick (Scotch Lake); and Nova Scotia (Pictou). While no regular
movements have been detected, individuals have been recorded at this
season =south= to Long Island, N. Y. (East Hampton and Southampton);
northern New Jersey (Upper Montclair and Englewood); southern New York
(Ithaca); Ohio (Painesville and Akron); Illinois (Rantoul and Peoria);
Iowa (Big Cedar River); and Nebraska (Omaha and Dakota).
_Egg dates._--Labrador: 3 records, May 27 to June 2.
Maine: 3 records, May 19 to June 12.
New Brunswick: 12 records, May 19 to June 30; 6 records, May 30 to
June 15, indicating the height of the season.
New York: 5 records, May 18 to June 10.
PICOÏDES TRIDACTYLUS BACATUS Bangs
AMERICAN THREE-TOED WOODPECKER
PLATE 17
HABITS
This North American race of the three-toed woodpecker occupies an
extensive range in the Hudsonian and Canadian Zones of approximately
the eastern half of Canada, which extends into some of the Northern
States from Minnesota eastward. Two other races occupy similar zones
in western Canada, Alaska, and the Rocky Mountains. The species is not
particularly common anywhere, but the eastern race seems to be the best
known. For a full discussion of the various races of the North American
three-toed woodpeckers, the reader is referred to an extensive paper
on the subject by Outram Bangs (1900). This woodpecker is not evenly
distributed throughout its range but seems to be confined to certain
rather limited and favorable localities. William Brewster (1898) found
it breeding in the eastern part of Coos County, N. H., on the eastern
side of a small pond; “where an elevated ridge approaches the pond the
banks are above the reach of the highest floods and the land in the
rear slopes gently upward. At this point a dense, vigorous forest of
spruces, balsams and arbor vitaes, intermingled with a few deciduous
trees, comes quite to the water’s edge and here, on June 2d, 1897, I
found my first nest of the Banded Three-toed Woodpecker.”
In the same county, Charles L. Whittle (1920) found what he called a
colony of three-toed woodpeckers in “a single small area of virgin
forest containing abundant white spruces and balsams, the former
splendid, healthy trees of large size, and the latter also large but
having many trees diseased or decayed at the heart. * * * In the
area of diseased balsams, a pleasant surprise awaited me, for here
Three-toed Woodpeckers of both species, sexes, and all recognizable
ages, were distinctly common--a colony, so to speak, temporarily
concentrated owing to two factors: (1) The nearly complete destruction
in this region of the former virgin forest of large conifers on which
and in which they fed and nested; and (2) the presence of abundant food
at this locality in the diseased balsam trees.”
Elon H. Eaton (1914) says:
In New York it is evidently confined to the Adirondack
forests. I have heard of no specimen taken farther from the
spruce belt than Waterville, Oneida county. It therefore
shares with the Spruce grouse, the Canada jay and the
Hudsonian chickadee the distinction of being one of our
perfectly nonmigratory species. Within the spruce and
balsam forests it is quite uniformly distributed, but is
less common than the Black-backed woodpecker, evidently
about one-half as common as that species. It inhabits both
the spruce swamps and the mountain sides. While making
the bird survey of the Mount Marcy district we found this
species breeding on the slopes of Marcy just above Skylight
camp, an altitude of 4,000 feet, and in the swamp at the
Upper Ausable lake at an altitude of 2,000 feet.
_Nesting._--Mr. Brewster (1898) describes, in considerable detail, the
nest he found in a spruce tree in Coos County, N. H., as follows:
On measuring the spruce I found it to be thirty-nine inches
in circumference one foot above the ground, and twenty-nine
inches at the nest. The hole was on the west side at a
height above the ground of exactly ten feet and eleven
inches. The entrance hole was somewhat irregular outwardly
measuring about one and three quarters inches in breadth by
two inches in height--the greater diameter vertically being
due to the fact that the lower edges had been chiselled
away rather freely to afford a foothold for the bird; half
an inch in, the hole was perfectly round, and measured one
and one-half inches in diameter.
The interior or nest cavity was irregularly gourd-shaped
and ten and one-eighth inches in depth, its greatest
diameter, about four and one-half inches, being midway
between the bottom and top. The walls were rough and seamy
but this was not, perhaps, the fault of the birds, for the
wood, although soft and easily worked, had evidently peeled
off in long, stringy fibers.
The eggs lay on a deep mat of these shreds some of which
were more than one inch in length.
Dr. C. Hart Merriam informed Major Bendire (1895) that “numerous nests
were found in the Adirondacks in June, 1883. Most of them were in the
flooded timber bordering the inlet of Seventh Lake, Fulton Chain.
They varied from 5 to 12 feet in height above the water, and were in
spruce, tamarack, pine, balsam, and cedar trees.” The nests of this
woodpecker are not always so low down as those mentioned above; Col.
John E. Thayer took a set, near Upton, Maine, on June 9, 1898, that was
20 feet from the ground in an old dead spruce stub; and the nests that
Mr. Eaton (1914) found in the Adirondacks “were situated in tamaracks
and spruces from 25 to 40 feet from the ground.”
_Eggs._--Four seems to be the usual number of eggs laid by this
woodpecker; I can find no record of either more or fewer in complete
sets. The eggs are ovate, pure white, and only moderately glossy. The
measurements of 43 eggs average 23.32 by 18.01 millimeters; the eggs
showing the four extremes measure =25.5= by 18.2, 23.8 by =19.6=, and
=20.1= by =15.0= millimeters.
_Young._--The period of incubation is said to be about 14 days, and it
is shared by both sexes. Both parents feed and care for the young, even
after the young leave the nest, as family parties are seen traveling
about together in summer.
_Plumages._--The nestlings are probably hatched naked and blind, as
with other woodpeckers, but the juvenal plumage is acquired before the
young leave the nest. In the juvenal plumage, the young male is similar
to the adult male, but the yellow crown patch is smaller and less
sharply defined; the upper parts are duller, brownish black instead of
sooty black; the flanks are more heavily and more extensively banded,
or spotted, with sepia instead of clear black; the white of the throat
and breast is tinged with pale buffy. The juvenal female is similar
to the young male, but the yellow crown patch is smaller, and the
amount of yellow in it is very variable, sometimes only a few scattered
feathers and sometimes a well-defined, clear patch. This plumage is
worn at least through August and probably well into fall. The only
molting adults I have seen were taken in August.
_Food._--The feeding habits of the American three-toed woodpecker are
almost identical with that of the Arctic three-toed. Prof. F. E. L.
Beal (1911) says:
The largest item with both species is wood-boring
coleopterous larvae. These amount to 64.25 percent with
_arcticus_ and 60.66 with _americanus_. Caterpillars, which
in this case are mostly wood-boring species, amount to
12.88 and 14.45 percent for the two birds respectively. The
total of wood-boring larvae, including both caterpillars
and beetles, is, 77.13 percent for _arcticus_ and 75.11
percent for _americanus_, or more than three-fourths of the
food of both species. * * *
Fruit skins were found in only one stomach of _americanus_
and mast in but one stomach of _arcticus_. Cambium was
found in 10 stomachs of _arcticus_ and 8 of _americanus_.
This indicates that these birds do some pecking at the bark
of living trees for other purposes than getting insects,
but no complaints have yet been made, from which we infer
that little or no damage is done; in fact the amount
contained in the stomachs is not large a little less than
10 percent.
E. H. Forbush (1927) says that “Miss Caroline E. Hamilton of
Greenfield, Massachusetts, observed in late September an individual
that remained in a yard from daylight till dark, making the rounds of
the trees and remaining longest on the fruit trees at the tiny holes
attributed to Sapsuckers. She said that the bird seemed to find good
food in these pits, and it may have been eating some of the cambium.”
He writes further:
Mr. E. O. Grant, a faithful correspondent of Patten, Maine,
travels over considerable region and north into Quebec,
spending much time in the woods. On March 6, 1922, he wrote
that the spruce budworm had killed about thirty percent
of the spruce in that region and nearly all the fir, and
that among the dead trees he saw hundreds of both the
three-toed species, together with nearly equal numbers
of Downy Woodpeckers and Hairy Woodpeckers. Food for the
birds was very plentiful, as dark-beetles and spruce-borers
were numerous. When an invasion of caterpillars strips
coniferous trees and thus exposes their trunks and
branches to the hot summer sun, dark-beetles attack and
virtually girdle them with numerous tunnels beneath the
bark; borers get in and sometimes most of the trees die.
The woodpeckers, concentrating on these dead trees from
all the forest around about, help to keep down the undue
increase of bark-beetles and borers which, if they became
too numerous, might attack some live trees.
_Behavior._--Lucien M. Turner says in his unpublished notes: “The
manner of flight of this species is less vigorous than in _Picoides
arcticus_, yet differing in a manner that is difficult to describe;
the unfolding of the wings when preparing to make the upward swoop is
quicker, the stroke of the wing not so strong, and the plunge not so
deep.”
Both species of three-toed woodpeckers are fearless birds, tame, and
unsuspicious, probably because of their unfamiliarity with man and his
hostile intentions; both are less active than most other woodpeckers,
this species being particularly quiet in its movements and sedentary in
its habits. Mr. Brewster (1898) writes:
My previous impression that _Picoides americanus_ is a very
much less active and restless bird than _P. arcticus_,
was fully confirmed by the behavior of this male who was
almost if not quite as slow and lethargic of movement as
a sapsucker. He would spend minutes at a time clinging to
one spot and when he moved up the tree trunks it was in a
singularly slow, deliberate manner. Only when at or near
the nest did he show real animation. * * *
I have rarely seen a nesting bird so alert and keen of
hearing as was this _Picoides_. The sound of our voices or
the slightest noise made by an oar or paddle would bring
him at once to the entrance of the hole, even when we were
forty or fifty yards away, and every few minutes when we
were sitting perfectly still he would look out turning
his head in every direction. He would not leave the hole,
however, until we were within a few yards of the foot of
the tree and after he had drummed awhile he would return
to the stub while we were sitting near its base with the
camera directed towards it. * * *