against it about two feet below the hole and reaching it
by two or three quick, upward hops would cling to its
lower edge, alternately looking in and down at us. * * *
He did not once enter the nest while we were near the
tree, nor did he again attempt to mislead us by pecking at
the bark, evidently realizing that this ruse had failed.
When he flew back into the woods he always took one of two
courses and along each he invariably alighted not only on
the same trees but on the same spot on each tree. He had
one particular place on the trunk of a large spruce where
he would spend ten or fifteen minutes at a time pluming
himself and watching us, before returning to the nest.
Major Bendire (1895) quotes the following from Dr. C. Hart Merriam:
We had just crossed the boundary line between Lewis and
Herkimer counties, when Mr. Bagg called my attention to a
“fresh hole,” about 8 feet from the ground, in a spruce
tree near by. On approaching the tree a yellow crown
appeared in the hole, showing that the male bird was “at
home.” To prevent his escape I jumped toward the tree and
introduced three fingers, which were immediately punctured
in a manner so distasteful to their proprietor as to
necessitate an immediate withdrawal and exchange for the
muzzle of my friend’s gun. A handkerchief was next crowded
into the hole, but was instantly riddled and driven out
by a few blows from his terrible bill. It was then held
loosely over the hole, and as the bird emerged I secured
and killed him.
Wendell Taber had a good chance to observe one of these woodpeckers
at short range in Grafton County, N. H., on May 31, 1937, about which
he writes to me: “The bird was intent upon obtaining its food and
ignored our presence. Most of the time the bird would fly to a tree
and alight at a height of 20 to 25 feet, then work downward, hopping
backward. Particularly it seemed to enjoy prodding around on the base
of a tree at or within an inch or two of where tree and earth met.
Drilling was barely audible, even when the bird was close-to. Both live
and dead trees were attacked impartially. There was no strip act--the
bark was not peeled off. There was a row of dead trees at the edge of
the forest, which might well have been concentrated on, but which,
actually, was attacked only in a haphazard manner along with trees
alive in the forest. If anything, more attention was given to live
trees.”
_Voice._--The three-toed woodpecker is normally a rather silent
bird. Its weak notes have been likened to the squealing notes of the
yellow-bellied sapsucker, or the squeak of a small mammal; it also
utters a variety of short notes like _queep_ or _quip_. Horace W.
Wright (1911) says: “The calls of the _americanus_ male bird were not
excited or loud. The single calls were somewhat like the robin’s call
at dusk, and the rattling calls resembled a Hairy Woodpecker’s rattle,
but were less loud and sharp.”
Mr. Brewster (1898) writes:
I had abundant opportunities for studying the drumming call
today. It varied in duration from one to two seconds (never
running over or under these limits) but was usually one and
a half to one and three quarters seconds. The intervals
between the calls were too irregular to be worth recording.
The first three or four taps were slightly slower and
more disconnected than the remaining ones but the general
effect was that of a uniform roll similar to that made
by the Downy and the Hairy Woodpecker, but less loud and
penetrating. Still it carried well and under favorable
conditions could be heard fully one quarter of a mile away.
* * *
After drumming a dozen times or more he gave a long vocal
call closely similar to the Kingfisher-like rattle of the
Hairy Woodpecker.
_Field marks._--The American three-toed woodpecker is the only
woodpecker likely to be seen in the northern woods that has a black
back transversely barred with white, white under parts banded with
black on the flanks, and a black crown, with or without a yellow crown
patch; the yellow patch is very prominent in the adult male and less so
in the young birds of both sexes, but lacking in the adult female. In
flight the “ladderback” is more conspicuous than when the bird is at
rest, and the tail flashes white.
_Winter._--Both species of three-toed woodpeckers are mainly resident
throughout the year within their breeding ranges, as their normal food
supply is as easily available in winter as in summer. Consequently few
species of birds are less inclined to migrate than these woodpeckers.
However, on rare occasions this woodpecker has been known to appear in
winter somewhat south of its summer range. Probably these southward
movements have been due to some shortage of food in its summer home,
or an unusual supply of it further south, or, possibly, an unusually
successful breeding season may have overcrowded the home range and
caused an exodus.
DISTRIBUTION
_Range._--Northern Europe, Asia, and North America, south through high
mountainous regions to about latitude 35° N.; nonmigratory.
In North America the range of the three-toed woodpecker extends
=north= to northern Alaska (Kowak River, Tanana, Beaver Creek, Fort
Yukon, Circle, and Charlie Creek); northern Yukon (Forty Mile and
probably Coal Creek); Mackenzie (Fort McPherson, Fort Goodhope,
Fort Anderson, Fort Rae, and Fort Smith); northern Manitoba (Fort
Du Brochet and Churchill); northern Ontario (Fort Albany); northern
Quebec (Fort Chimo); and Labrador (Okak). =East= to Labrador (Okak
and Nain); Newfoundland (South Exploit River); northeastern Maine
(Presque Isle); and New Hampshire (Lake Umbagog and Mount Jefferson).
=South= to northern New Hampshire (Mount Jefferson); northern New
York (Long Lake and Moose River); probably northern Michigan (Isle
Royal); northern Minnesota (Lake Itasca); northern New Mexico (Pecos
Baldy and Chuska Mountains); Arizona (White Mountains, San Francisco
Mountain, and Kaibab Plateau); east-central Nevada (Snake Mountains);
and southwestern Oregon (Four-mile Lake). =West= to western Oregon
(Four-mile Lake); Washington (Blue Mountains, probably Mount Rainier,
and Mount Baker); British Columbia (Chilliwack, Clinton, Willow River,
and Hazelton); and Alaska (Chichagof Island, Glacier, Copper River, Lake
Clark, Mount McKinley, Nulato, and Kowak River).
Several races of this species have been recognized, three of which
are included in the range above outlined. The American three-toed
woodpecker (_P. t. bacatus_) ranges from Maine, Newfoundland, and
Labrador west to northern Manitoba and southern Mackenzie; the Alpine
three-toed woodpecker (_P. t. dorsalis_) is the Rocky Mountain form
and is found in that region from Montana and Idaho south to the higher
mountains of New Mexico and Arizona; the Alaska three-toed woodpecker
(_P. t. fasciatus_) is found from Alaska, Yukon, and western Mackenzie
south to Oregon, Idaho, and Montana.
While the three-toed woodpecker is not regularly migratory, it
appears likely that during severe winters it withdraws somewhat from
the northern parts of its range. At this season it is occasionally
collected or observed short distances south of its normal range
(Massachusetts, southern Wisconsin, southern Minnesota, and southern
New Mexico).
_Egg dates._--Alberta: 8 records, May 23 to June 16.
Arctic America: 5 records, May 15 to June 9.
Labrador: 3 records, May 26 and 27.
New York: 3 records, May 14 to June 8.
PICOÏDES TRIDACTYLUS FASCIATUS Baird
ALASKA THREE-TOED WOODPECKER
HABITS
The range of this race of the three-toed woodpecker extends throughout
the Hudsonian and Canadian Zones of western Canada and Alaska, and a
short distance southward into some of the Western States, where it
intergrades with the next form in the boreal forests of the Rocky
Mountains.
Ridgway (1914) describes it as similar to the eastern race, “but
with much more white on back, the white bars much larger and more or
less coalesced along median line, forming a more or less continuous
longitudinal patch; whitish spots on forehead much larger, sometimes
coalesced into a nearly uniform dull white frontal area; upper
tail-coverts and lower rump barred or spotted with white; sometimes
even the wing-coverts and middle rectrices are spotted with white;
black malar stripe narrower and usually less distinct, and black bars
on sides and flanks narrower; averaging slightly larger.”
Dr. E. W. Nelson (1887) says that this woodpecker occurs “on the
headwaters of the Mackenzie River, extending thence north along the
course of this stream and the Anderson River, and westward, covering
all the wooded portions of Northern Alaska to the northern tree-limit,
* * * outnumbering by far the combined numbers of all the other
woodpeckers of that region. * * * On the Yukon these birds are said to
prefer the groves of poplar and willow to the spruces.”
Dr. Joseph Grinnell (1900) says: “This, the only species of woodpecker
detected by me in the Kowak region, was resident throughout the year.
It could scarcely be called common, though its borings were noticed in
nearly every tract of spruces visited.” J. A. Munro (1919), referring
to the Okanagan Valley, British Columbia, says: “This species is
resident and fairly common in Murray pine, Western larch, and spruce
forests. I have never found them in yellow pine or Douglas fir country.
They prefer the burnt areas of timber, and specimens collected are
generally stained with charcoal on the underparts.”
_Nesting._--The nesting habits of this woodpecker do not differ
materially from those of its eastern relative. Bendire (1895) mentions
two sets of eggs, collected by MacFarlane in the Anderson River region,
of which he says: “A single egg, originally from a set of three taken
on May 30, 1863, accompanied by the female bird, was taken from a
cavity in a pine tree, 4 feet from the ground, and another set of four,
of which there are three eggs remaining, and likewise accompanied by
the male bird, was taken on June 5, 1864, from a hole in a dry spruce,
situated about 6 feet from the ground. The eggs from the last set were
said to have been lying on the decayed dust of the tree, and were
perfectly fresh when found.”
Laing and Taverner (1929) found an abandoned nest in the Chitina River
region, Alaska, of which they say: “Tree, about 15 inches in diameter
at butt, had a dead top and nest in this dead portion, about 40 feet
aloft. Dimensions as follows: diameter of door barely 2 inches; depth
of nest 9½ inches; greatest diameter 3 inches. Barrel of nest quite
cylindrical.”
There is a set of four eggs in my collection, taken by Richard C.
Harlow near Belvedere, Alberta, on May 29, 1926. The nest was about 20
feet above ground in a dead tamarack stub, among a scattered growth of
tamaracks, in a muskeg, near a lake; the eggs lay on a bed of chips 10
inches below the entrance.
Mr. Munro (1919) writes: “On May 28, 1917, I found a nest that had just
been finished, thirty feet from the ground in a dead Murray pine. The
entrance was smaller than would be expected, slightly over one and a
half inches, and the hole about fourteen inches deep.”
_Eggs._--The eggs of the Alaska three-toed woodpecker are
indistinguishable from those of the eastern race. The measurements of
12 eggs average 22.08 by 17.09 millimeters; the eggs showing the four
extremes measure =23.6= by =18.1=, =20.8= by 16.8, and 21.5 by =16.5=
millimeters.
_Behavior._--The plumages, feeding habits, and general behavior of this
race do not differ materially from those of the species elsewhere,
but Maj. Allan Brooks (Dawson and Bowles, 1909) has given a good
description of a habit that seems to be shared by both species of
_Picoïdes_ and that has been referred to by others; he writes:
When shot, even if instantly killed, three-toed woodpeckers
of both species have a marvelous faculty of remaining
clinging to the tree in death. Where the trunks are draped
with _Usnea_ moss, it is impossible to bring one down,
except when winged--then they attempt to fly, and fall
to earth; but when killed outright they remain securely
fastened by their strong curved claws. * * * The only
chance is to leave the bird and to visit the foot of the
tree when the relaxing muscles have at length permitted the
body to drop--usually within two days. Once I was fortunate
enough to observe the exact position that enabled the bird
to maintain its grip. I had shot and killed an Arctic
Three-toed Woodpecker on a low stump. On going up I found
the bird’s feet to be three inches apart by measurement;
the tail was firmly braced, and the further the body was
tilted back the more firmly the claws held in the bark.
Dr. Grinnell (1900) says: “In the fall and mid-winter these birds are
silent and seldom seen. But after the first of March their drumming
on some resonant dead tree was heard nearly every morning. This sound
could be heard a long distance through the quiet woods, giving notice
of the whereabouts of the woodpeckers.”
PICOÏDES TRIDACTYLUS DORSALIS Baird
ALPINE THREE-TOED WOODPECKER
HABITS
This race of the three-toed woodpeckers enjoys the most southern
distribution of any of the birds of this genus, ranging from northern
Montana to northern Arizona and New Mexico, in the boreal forests of
the Rocky Mountains. Ridgway (1914) characterizes it as “similar to
white-backed examples of _P. a. fasciatus_, but larger; white markings
on back usually all longitudinal (very rarely with any transverse bars
of black), white supra-auricular streak usually broader, forehead
usually with more black and less whitish spotting, white spots or bars
on inner web of innermost secondaries larger, and sides and flanks
usually less barred with black.”
The Weydemeyers (1928) say that in northwestern Montana, “unlike
_arcticus_, this species prefers dense, virgin forests to cut-over
woods and open woodland pastures. * * * In the higher elevations,
this woodpecker may be found in white pine, lodgepole pine, alpine
fir, and Engelmann spruce forests. In the Transition zone, it shows
a preference for spruce woods, with larch and yellow pine forests as
second choice. In the Canadian zone, this species is somewhat commoner
than _arcticus_; in the Transition zone, it occurs only about one-third
as frequently as does the larger bird.”
M. P. Skinner says, in his Yellowstone National Park notes: “This
woodpecker is rather uncommon, but I have seen it in coniferous forests
between 6,500 and 8,000 feet, in firs, lodgepole pine, and Engelmann
spruce. I have also seen it on dead trees and on telephone poles. I
have seen this woodpecker in this Park only between May and October.”
_Nesting._--At an altitude of about 9,000 feet in the mountains of
Colorado, in or near Estes Park, John H. Flanagan (1911) collected a
set of four eggs of the alpine three-toed woodpecker. “The hole was in
an aspen stub, nine feet from the ground and about a foot or eighteen
inches from the top, and just before the guide reached the hole the
bird flew out. * * *
“The entrance to the nesting cavity was about one and one-half inches
in diameter; the cavity itself about nine or ten inches in depth and
quite large at the bottom. The eggs were laid on a few chips.”
In north-central Colorado, Edwin R. Warren (1912) found a nest of this
woodpecker “in a dead Engelmann spruce, which was twenty-five inches
in diameter at the base, and twenty at the nest hole, the latter being
seven feet above ground. The nest was eight inches deep, the entrance
one and three-quarters inches in diameter; the thickness of the wood on
the front side of the hole was two and three-quarters inches, and the
cavity was five inches from front to back, and three wide. There were
a few chips in the bottom, as well as a few of the birds’ droppings.
There were two young, about ready to fly, though I had no difficulty in
posing them on the tree for pictures; they showed little or no fear.”
Randolph Jenks (1934) discovered two nests of the alpine three-toed
woodpecker on the Kaibab Plateau, near the east rim of the Grand
Canyon, in northern Arizona. One was in “a hole in an aspen tree, two
and one-half inches in diameter, opening to the southeast, twelve feet
from the ground. The cavity was eight inches deep and the nest was
lined with a thick layer of maggot-infested sawdust. In spite of the
crawling competitors, the nestlings, a male and a female, seemed quite
contented.” This was on June 30, 1931. Several days later another nest
was found, also on the Plateau, at an elevation of 8,100 feet; this
nest was “in a hole about sixty feet above the ground in a western
yellow pine.”
Dr. Edgar A. Mearns (1890b) writes:
The Alpine Three-toed Woodpecker breeds commonly throughout
the pine belt, seldom ascending far into the spruce woods
of the highest peaks [in the mountains of Arizona]. On the
northwestern slope of San Francisco Mountain I discovered a
nest of this species on June 8, 1887. The female was seen
alone pecking at a large yellow pine, which, although dead,
still retained its bark and was quite solid. While feeding
she uttered a peculiar, harsh, nasal cry. I shot her, and
then noticed a small, neatly bored hole in the south side
of the pine trunk, about 30 feet from the ground and away
from branches. With the aid of a rope, and taking a start
from the saddle, I was scarcely able to climb to the nest,
which the male did not quit until I was well up; then he
came out and uttered a sudden, sharp “whip-whip-whip” in
a menacing tone, remaining hard by while I worked with
saw and chisel. It took me nearly half an hour to make an
opening sufficiently large to admit the hand, as the burrow
was situated so extraordinarily deep. Two young, male and
female, with feathers just sprouting, were found on a bed
of small chips at the bottom of the burrow, not more than
8 inches lower than the entrance, but in the very heart of
the tree, the cavity being oblique and pear-shaped, and
having the strong odor characteristic of Woodpeckers’ nests
in general. Both parents and their progeny were preserved,
and are now in the American Museum collection. The irides
of the adults were dark cherry red; their feet, claws, and
basal half of mandible plumbeous, the rest of the bill
being plumbeous black.
_Eggs._--The alpine three-toed woodpecker is said to lay five eggs to a
set, but probably the set oftener consists of fewer eggs. I have seen
no eggs of this subspecies; and the only measurements I have been able
to get are those from a set of five eggs, collected by A. Treganza in
Salt Lake County, Utah, on June 3, 1916; these are in the P. B. Philipp
collection in the American Museum of Natural History. The measurements
average 24.52 by 17.52 millimeters, rather large for the species; the
eggs showing the four extremes measure =25.3= by =17.7= and =24.1= by
=17.4= millimeters.
_Food._--Mrs. Bailey (1928) says that the food of this woodpecker
consists of “over 75 percent, destructive wood-boring larvae of
caterpillars and beetles. The Three-toed Woodpeckers rank high as
conservators of the forest, eliminating annually, as Professor Beal
has estimated, some 13,675 of the grubs most destructive to forests.
The scarcity of these useful woodpeckers makes their protection and
encouragement especially important.”
SPHYRAPICUS VARIUS VARIUS (Linnaeus)
YELLOW-BELLIED SAPSUCKER
PLATES 18, 19
HABITS
CONTRIBUTED BY WINSOR MARRETT TYLER
_Spring._--It is spring in the Transition Zone when in April the
yellow-bellied sapsucker passes through on the way from its winter
quarters to its breeding ground in the Canadian Zone. If spring
is tardy most of the trees may be leafless, but many of them have
blossomed, and the sap is running.
At this season the sapsucker is light-hearted and jaunty compared to
the sober, quiet bird that visited us the autumn before. The breeding
season is near at hand, and if two birds meet they often engage in a
sort of game, a precursory courtship, wherein one bird flies at the
other in a playful attack; the other eludes the rush of the oncoming
bird by a sudden, last-minute retreat--winding around the branch on
which it rests, or sliding off into the air. In these pursuits in and
out among the branches we are impressed by the agility and grace of
the birds and by the easy way they direct their course through the
air. They do not appear to impel themselves by strength of wing alone,
but, especially in their slanting descents, they let the force of
gravity pull them swiftly along, and then, by the impetus of the speed
attained, glide upward to a perch. They seem to swing from branch to
branch with little effort, slowly opening and closing their wings to
guide them on their way. As we watch them we are reminded of trapeze
artists in the circus.
But the new sap is running, and the birds quickly tap the supply by
drilling into the bark of their favorite trees and drink of the sap as
it flows freely from the wounds.
Every spring the birds come to a sturdy yellow birch tree on the Boston
Public Garden, a species of tree with which they must be familiar on
their breeding grounds in the north. The sap flows plenteously in
mid-April from the many punctures that the birds make; it wets a large
portion of the trunk of the tree and often drips to the ground from the
branches. The birds stand clear of the tree as they feed at the sap
wells with only the feet and the tip of the tail touching the bark.
The tail is braced against the trunk at an angle of about 45°, and the
feet reach far forward to grasp the bark opposite the bend of the wing.
I have never seen a sapsucker crouch against this wet bark as a downy
woodpecker commonly does when digging out a grub--like a cat hunched up
lapping a saucer of milk. When a bird wishes to move to a point below
where it is perched, it jumps from the tree and floats in the air,
then turning, with its wings held out somewhat, dives head-downward,
drifting in an easy, leisurely manner as if moving under water; then,
just before alighting, it rights itself. If you come too near, the
sapsucker scrambles around to the rear of the limb, and if you step
close up to the tree, the bird starts away in free, sweeping curves,
like a skater over the ice, the white in the wing flashing out.
Eaton (1914) notes that “during the migration it is evident that the
male birds arrive first, for during 15 years of continuous records
which I have kept with this object in view I have found that male birds
are the first to be seen each year and no females are seen for several
days after the first males arrive.”
Audubon (1842) records the following unique observation:
While travelling I observed that they performed their
migration by day, in loose parties or families of six or
seven individuals, flying at a great height, and at the
intervals between their sailings and the flappings of their
wings, emitting their remarkable plaintive cries. When
alighting towards sunset, they descended with amazing speed
in a tortuous manner, and first settled on the tops of the
highest trees, where they remained perfectly silent for
awhile, after which they betook themselves to the central
parts of the thickest trees, and searched along the trunks
for abandoned holes of Squirrels or Woodpeckers, in which
they spent the night, several together in the same hole.
A. B. Klugh (1909) reports a remarkably large gathering of sapsuckers
on their northward migration. He says:
On the morning of April 17th, 1909, the city of Kingston,
Ontario, was alive with yellow-bellied sapsuckers.
From my study window I saw some twenty of them on the trees
at the lodge of the park and on going out to investigate
I found from one to four on nearly every tree. As a
conservative estimate I placed the number of birds in the
park at three hundred. * * *
The probable cause of this immense wave of yellow-bellied
sapsuckers striking Kingston lies in the strong gale from
the north which was blowing on the night of April 16th, the
birds apparently dropping as soon as they had crossed the
lake.
_Courtship._--Little has been recorded on the courtship of the
yellow-bellied sapsucker, but we may get a hint of its early stages at
least as the birds pass northward--the increased interest in each other
shown by their lively pursuits and their rapid whirlings among the
branches, as noted under “Spring.”