they be eggs or infant woodpeckers, and the male rarely
fails to stand on guard on a high perch ready to warn and
defend should possible danger threaten. The method of
feeding is like that of the flickers, by regurgitation for
the first two weeks or longer. The adult comes with gular
pouch full of food and alights at one side of the nest hole
to rest a moment. Though he may have come noiselessly and
from the other side of the tree, yet his approach is always
heralded by a mowing-machine chorus from the young, plainly
heard some yards away. If old enough, the queer-looking
little heads are thrust out of the doorway, and the parent,
inserting his long bill into the open mouth of a youngling,
shakes it vigorously, thereby emptying the food from his
throat into that of his offspring. Each in turn is fed in
this odd fashion. * * *
For a week or two after the young have left the nest,
they follow their parents begging for food with ludicrous
eagerness; at this time the provender brought them consists
of nuts, berries, ants, and the larvae of beetles. These,
especially the nuts, are often placed in a crevice of the
bark, and the youngster is compelled to pick them out.
After a few trials he learns to hammer right merrily and is
ready to forage for himself.
_Food._--The western pileated woodpecker lives on much the same kind
of food as its eastern relative, but naturally on different species of
insects and berries. Dr. Harold C. Bryant (1916) examined the stomach
of one, taken in Lake County, Calif., on November 5, 1915, and says:
“The stomach contained more than fifty carpenter ants (_Camponotus
herculaneus_ subsp.) and 131 seeds of poison oak (_Rhus diversiloba_).
As the seeds of poison oak are hard and without a noticeable covering
of softer material it is difficult to understand what there is about
them that is attractive to birds. Certain it is that the seeds are
incapable of complete digestion by woodpeckers.” And he adds: “The
stomachs of two pileated woodpeckers taken in or near Yosemite National
Park * * * were filled with carpenter ants (_Camponotus herculaneus
modoc_ Wheeler), many of them winged. Each stomach contained more than
a hundred of these ants. In addition one stomach contained a whole
fruit of manzanita (_Arctostaphylos nevadensis_ Gray) and the other,
four large beetle larvae (_Cerambycidae_), unidentifiable as to genus
or species, which had evidently been dug out of some dead tree, as the
stomach contained slivers of dead wood.”
J. A. Munro (1930) writes: “On December 2, 1926, a pileated woodpecker
was seen scrambling among the thick entwined branches of Virginia
creeper that partly covered the walls of a house situated on the shore
of Okanagan Lake. Here it remained for twenty minutes, busily picking
off the fruit. Subsequently, during the month of December, it often
was observed eating these berries at the same place and likewise at a
vine-covered house half a mile distant. Sometimes it appeared at both
houses on the same day, but more often only one house was visited.”
Charles W. Michael (1928) gives the following interesting account:
Beside the road, with branches overhanging it, stands a
group of mountain dogwoods (_Cornus nuttalli_). These
trees bore this year a heavy crop of fruit. At the end of
each flower stalk was a bunched cluster of ripe berries.
The Pileated Woodpecker was here today [September 19] to
collect his toll of fruit. The fruit being at the ends
of slender branches we thought the heavy-bodied bird
would be out of luck. How could the big fellow reach the
fruit? He was apparently not just sure himself. At first
he tried walking out the heavier branches; but always as
he approached the tip-ends they bent under his weight and
threw the berries beyond reach. By working out on a cedar
branch that intermingled with the dogwood branches he did
manage to get a taste of fruit, just enough to tease his
appetite. He was not to be cheated, however; for his next
move was to flutter clumsily up to a branch containing
berries, clutch the branch firmly with his strong feet, and
then drop to swing like a great pendulum. He now had the
system. Swinging head down he would pick the berries one by
one, loosen his hold, swing into flight and then repeat the
performance on another branch.
MELANERPES ERYTHROCEPHALUS (Linnaeus)
RED-HEADED WOODPECKER
PLATES 25-27
HABITS
This handsome and conspicuously colored woodpecker enjoys a wide
distribution over much of North America, from southern Canada to the
Gulf coast, east of the Rocky Mountains, and west of New England and
eastern Canada. It is recorded from British Columbia, and is rare in
New England. The only one I have seen in southeastern Massachusetts, in
50 years of field work, was chased across the line from Rhode Island
before I shot it. Throughout the northern portion of its range, it is a
summer resident only, though in mild winters, when food is abundant, it
may remain all through winter.
The red-headed woodpecker is essentially a bird of the open country
and not in any sense a forest dweller. I first met this woodpecker in
northern New York while on a fishing trip on the St. Lawrence River;
here it was fairly common in open groves of large trees or in groups of
scattered trees in open fields, where its brilliant color pattern made
it very conspicuous; it was frequently seen sitting on telegraph poles,
fence posts, the dead tops of tall trees, or on dead stubs. Dr. Elon H.
Eaton (1914) says of its haunts in that State: “The preferred home of
this woodpecker is in open groves and ‘slashings’ and ‘old burns’ and
tracts of half-dead forest where the live trees are scattered and dead
stubs are in abundance.”
Spencer Trotter (1903) writes: “I first saw the bird on a certain
hill-side in Maryland that was grown up with tall white-oaks,
not thickly, but open enough for a sheep-pasture, with vistas of
close-cropped grass among the gray tree-trunks. In this setting a
Woodpecker winged before me from tree to tree with its strongly
contrasted blotches of black, white, and crimson flashing in the
sunlight.”
In Florida I have found it most commonly in the large burned-over
areas in the pine woods, where numerous dead trees and stubs are left
standing; these offer attractive nesting sites and some food supply.
But Arthur H. Howell (1932) says: “The red-head is the most domestic of
our woodpeckers, living frequently in the heart of populous towns and
nesting in telephone poles on village streets. The birds are especially
attracted to newly cleared lands, where many dead or girdled trees are
left standing. They are common, also, in open pine forests in certain
sections, but in other seemingly suitable localities are not to be
found.”
_Nesting._--As my experience with the nesting habits of the red-headed
woodpecker is almost nothing, I shall have to draw on the observations
of others. Major Bendire (1895) makes the following general statement:
Some of its nesting sites are exceedingly neat pieces
of work; the edges of the entrance hole are beautifully
beveled off, and the inside is as smooth as if finished
with a fine rasp. The entrance is about 1¾ inches in
diameter and the inner cavity varies from 8 to 24 inches
in depth; the eggs are deposited on a layer of fine chips.
It usually nests in the dead tops or limbs of deciduous
trees, or in old stumps of oak, ash, butternut, maple,
elm, sycamore, cottonwood, willow, and other species,
more rarely in coniferous and fruit trees, at heights
varying from 8 to 80 feet from the ground, and also not
infrequently in natural cavities. On the treeless prairies
it has to resort mainly to telegraph poles and fence posts,
and here it also nests under the roofs of houses or in any
dark corner it can find.
John Helton, Jr., tells me that in Alabama the favorite nesting site is
in a rotten stump from which the bark has peeled off; he very seldom
finds a nest in a tree with bark on it. M. G. Vaiden sends me a note
on a nest that was only 5 feet from the ground in a limb of a-dead oak
near Rosedale, Miss. The nests are often placed near houses or in trees
on town or village streets. Two broods are often raised in a season
and sometimes in the same cavity; A. D. DuBois tells, in his notes, of
such a Minnesota nest; the earlier brood had been raised in a newly
excavated cavity that was 14 inches deep; the second set of eggs was
laid at a depth of only 9 inches, the bed for the eggs having been
raised 5 inches by chiseling fresh chips from the inner walls of the
cavity. Dr. H. C. Oberholser (1896b) gives the average measurements of
four Ohio nests as follows: Total depth 10.75; diameter of entrance
2.06 by 1.66; diameter at entrance 3.81 by 2.69; diameter at middle
4.50 by 3.88; and diameter at bottom 4.41 by 3.35 inches.
In the prairie regions and in other places, where trees are scarce and
these woodpeckers are common, some unusual and odd nesting sites have
been noted. Kumlien and Hollister (1903) write: “Among some of the odd
nesting sites we have noted are the following: Between two flat rails
on an old style rail fence; the hub of a broken wagon wheel, leaning
against a fence; the box of a grain drill left standing in a field; a
hole excavated in the hollow cylinder of an ordinary pump; common fence
posts and telegraph poles. These were usually in prairie regions where
there were few, if any, suitable trees.”
G. S. Agersborg (1881) mentions a nest that “was in the angle formed
by the shares of an upturned plow” in South Dakota. And E. A. Stoner
(1915) flushed a red-headed woodpecker from a blue jay’s nest in
Iowa. “The nest was eight feet up in an oak sapling and was a typical
Blue Jay’s but was found to contain three pure white and unmistakably
Woodpecker eggs.”
_Eggs._--Major Bendire (1895) writes: “The number of eggs to a set
varies from four to seven, sets of five being most frequently found,
while occasionally as many as eight eggs have been taken from a nest.
Mr. R. C. McGregor records taking a set of ten eggs of the red-head,
varying in size from ordinary down to that of the song sparrow.
Incubation varied from fresh in the smallest egg to advanced in the
larger (Oologist, vol. 5, p. 44, 1888).”
If the first set of eggs is taken, another set will be completed within
the next 10 or 12 days, usually in the same hole. Like the flicker,
this woodpecker is very persistent in its attempt to raise a brood and
will keep on laying, if repeatedly robbed. C. C. Bacon (1891), of Bell,
Ky., reports taking six sets of eggs, 28 eggs in all, from the same
nest in a single season, after which the birds drilled a new hole in
the same tree and raised a brood of four young; this persevering pair
drilled two holes and laid 32 eggs before they succeeded in raising a
brood.
The eggs vary in shape from short ovate to rounded ovate, are pure
white in color, and somewhat glossy when incubated. The measurements of
54 eggs average 25.14 by 19.17 millimeters; the eggs showing the four
extremes measure =27.18= by 19.30, 26.16 by =20.57=, =23= by 18.20, and
23.11 by =17.78= millimeters.
_Young._--Incubation is said to last for about 14 days. Both sexes
assist in this duty, as well as in the care of the young. As an egg
is laid each day, and, as incubation often begins before the set is
complete, the young may hatch on different days.
Mr. DuBois writes to me that one nest that he watched held newly
hatched young on June 11; they were in the nest on July 7 but had left
before 2 p. m. on the 9th, making the period in the nest approximately
27 days. He says: “The newly hatched, naked young have extremely long
necks, longer in fact than their bodies. The four young all faced
inward, each toward a point to the right of the center of the nest; and
when in repose, each neck crossed the necks of the two others at right
angles to its own--like woof and warp in a loom. A little noise on my
part made all four of them stretch their necks straight upward; but
when they collapsed, their necks became again interwoven. Each lowered
its head to its own right side of the one opposite it. There were egg
shells still in the nest.”
Julian K. Potter (1912) says of a nest that he watched at Camden, N. J.:
The old birds fed the young at varying intervals, sometimes
going to the nest once in every three or four minutes for a
half hour, then not appearing again for fifteen or twenty
minutes. * * *
The young birds left the nest about June 25. On that day
I saw them out in the open, quite able to take care of
themselves, although the parents fed them occasionally.
[This pair raised a second brood that season, and had
young on July 30.] Meanwhile the young of the first brood
were being very much misused by their parents, and were
driven away whenever they came in sight; in fact they
were persecuted to such an extent that they must have been
driven from the locality, for I was unable to find them
after July 30.
Some writers have said that only one brood is raised in a season, and
others that two broods are raised only in the southern part of the
breeding range. But Mr. DuBois reports two broods in Minnesota; and Mr.
Potter one brood one season and two broods the next season for his pair
in New Jersey.
_Plumages._--The young are hatched naked and blind, but they acquire
the juvenal plumage before they leave the nest. The sexes are alike
in all plumages, and the juvenal plumage is quite unlike that of the
adult. In the juvenal plumage, the head, neck, and upper chest are
brownish gray, spotted above and streaked below with dusky; the back
is black but not glossy as in the adult; the wings are as in the
adult, except that the secondaries and tertials are white but more
or less patterned or barred with black, chiefly near the tips, and
the primaries are edged with buffy white on the outer webs; the under
parts below the chest are dull white, clouded with brownish gray and
more or less streaked with dusky, chiefly on the sides and flanks.
This plumage is usually worn in its purity through July and August and
sometimes into October, though sometimes a few red feathers are seen in
the head; I have seen two or three red feathers in the head as early
as June 29 and a bird not much farther advanced on December 1. But
usually the complete molt into the adult plumage begins in September
and lasts through winter; the change begins on the head and back in
fall, but the wings are not usually molted until April, and even then
some of the juvenal secondaries may be retained. Most young birds are
in practically adult plumage before May.
Adults have a complete postnuptial molt in August and September; they
may have a partial molt in spring, but I have not seen it. Some highly
plumaged birds, probably old birds and mostly from western localities,
have the abdomen tinged with red.
_Food._--Much has been written on the food habits of the red-headed
woodpecker, a most resourceful feeder on a greatly varied diet. Prof.
F. E. L. Beal (1895) makes the following report on the contents of 101
stomachs, collected throughout the year in various parts of the country:
Animal matter, 50 percent; vegetable matter, 47 percent;
mineral matter, 3 percent. * * * The insects consist of
ants, wasps, beetles, bugs, grasshoppers, crickets, moths,
and caterpillars. Spiders and myriapods also were found.
Ants amounted to about 11 percent of the whole food. * * *
Beetle remains formed nearly one-third of all food.
* * * The families represented were those of the common
May beetle (_Lachnosterna_), which was found in several
stomachs, the predaceous ground beetles, tiger beetles,
weevils, and a few others. * * * Weevils were found in 15
stomachs, and in several cases as many as 10 were present.
Remains of Carabid beetles were found in 44 stomachs to
an average amount of 24 percent of the contents of those
that contained them, or 10 percent of all. The fact that
43 percent of all the birds taken had eaten these beetles,
some of them to the extent of 16 individuals, shows a
decided fondness for these insects, and taken with the fact
that 5 stomachs contained Cicindelids or tiger beetles
forms a rather strong indictment against the bird.
The vegetable food includes corn, dogwood berries, huckleberries,
strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, mulberries, elderberries,
wild black cherries, choke cherries, cultivated cherries, wild grapes,
apples, pears, various seeds, acorns, and beechnuts. Prof. Beal (1895)
reports that--
corn was found in 17 stomachs, collected from May to
September, inclusive, and amounted to more than 7
percent of all the food. While it seems to be eaten in
any condition, that taken in the late summer was in the
milk, and evidently picked from standing ears. This * * *
corroborates some of the testimony received, and indicates
that the Redhead, if sufficiently abundant, might do
considerable damage to the growing crop, particularly if
other food was not at hand. While the fruit list is not so
long as in the case of the Flicker, it includes more kinds
that are, or may be, cultivated; and the quantity found
in the stomachs, a little more than 33 percent of all the
food, is greater than in any of the others. Strawberries
were found in 1 stomach, blackberries or raspberries in
15, cultivated cherries in 2, apples in 4, and pears in
6. Fruit pulp was found in 33 stomachs, and it is almost
certain that a large part of this was obtained from some of
the larger cultivated varieties. Seeds were found in but
few stomachs, and only a small number in each.
Audubon (1842) gives this woodpecker a rather bad name, saying:
I would not recommend to anyone to trust their fruit to
the red-heads; for they not only feed on all kinds as
they ripen, but destroy an immense quantity besides. No
sooner are the cherries seen to redden, than these birds
attack them. * * * Trees of this kind are stripped clean
by them. * * * I may safely assert that a hundred have
been shot upon a single cherry-tree in one day. * * * They
have another bad habit, which is that of sucking the eggs
of small birds. For this purpose, they frequently try to
enter the boxes of the Martins or Bluebirds, as well as
the pigeon-houses, and are often successful. The corn, as
it ripens, is laid bare by their bill, when they feed on
the top parts of the ear, and leave the rest either to the
Grakles or the Squirrels, or still worse, to decay, after a
shower has fallen upon it.
Bendire (1895) adds to the evidence against this gay villain. He
personally saw a red-headed woodpecker rifle a nest of a red-shafted
flicker and carry off an egg. He quotes from one observer who had
seen one of these woodpeckers clean out a nest of young of the
tufted titmouse, and from another who had seen one carrying off a
freshly killed young robin. W. G. Smith wrote to him from Colorado:
“The red-headed woodpecker is a common summer resident in the lower
foothills along the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains in this
State, and I consider it a veritable butcher among our nuthatches and
chickadees, driving every one away from its nesting sites, and woe to
the bird that this villain can reach. It destroys both eggs and young,
dragging the latter out of their nests and frequently leaving them dead
at the entrance of their holes.”
He also relates the following personal experience:
We noticed a red-headed woodpecker take something,
apparently a bunch of moss, from a crotch of a maple and
carry it to a fence post of an adjacent field. After
worrying some time in trying to swallow something rather
too large for his gullet, he finally succeeded, after an
effort, and then worked some little time, evidently trying
to secrete the remainder. Both of us had our field glasses
and were watching the bird’s actions closely. After some
little time he flew back to the tree he had started from,
while we proceeded to the fence post to investigate, and,
much to our disgust and surprise, we found the freshly
killed and partly eaten body of a young bird, almost
denuded of feathers, securely tucked away behind the loose
bark of the post. His victim was too much mutilated to
identify positively, but looked like a half-grown bluebird,
whose head had been crushed in, the brain abstracted, and
the entire rump and entrails torn out; the only parts left
intact were the breast, upper part of the back, and the
lower portion of the head. The missing parts had evidently
just been eaten by the rascal while clinging to the top of
the post, and the remnant was then hidden for future use.
Howard Jones (1883), of Circleville, Ohio, reports the following
incident:
Under the eaves of a large barn near Mt. Sterling, O., a
colony of Cliff Swallows have built for some years. Last
year they were nearly exterminated by several woodpeckers.
The redheads would alight at the doors of the mud huts and
extract the eggs from the nests with their bills. In some
nests the necks or entrance-ways were so long that the
woodpeckers could not reach the eggs by this means, but not
willing to be cheated of such choice food they would climb
around to the side, and with a few well directed blows of
their bills make openings large enough to enable them to
procure the eggs. Of the dozens of nests built not a single
brood was reared in any. One woodpecker bolder than the
rest began eating hen’s eggs wherever they could be found.
Mr. DuBois says in his notes: “A redhead, seeing a young lark sparrow
flutter in the grass, attacked it and might have killed it, had I
not intervened. He had struck the young bird at one of his lores and
had brought blood. I have also seen this woodpecker attack a young
bluebird, on the ground, just after it had left the nest.”
But not all red-headed woodpeckers are cannibals or murderers; perhaps
many individuals never indulge in such practices; and all of them have
some harmless and useful feeding habits. Their insect-eating habits
are impressive. They are very fond of grasshoppers and destroy them in
large numbers. H. B. Bailey (1878) quotes the following from a letter
from G. S. Agersborg, of Vermillion, S. Dak.:
Last spring in opening a good many birds of this species
with the object of ascertaining their principal food, I
found in their stomachs nothing but young grasshoppers.
One of them, which had its headquarters near my house, was
observed making frequent visits to an old oak post, and on
examining it I found a large crack where the Woodpecker had
inserted about one hundred grasshoppers of all sizes (for
future use, as later observations proved), which were put
in without killing them, but they were so firmly wedged in
the crack that they in vain tried to get free. I told this
to a couple of farmers, and found that they had also seen
the same thing, and showed me the posts which were used for
the same purpose. Later in the season the Woodpecker, whose
station was near my house, commenced to use his stores, and
today (February 10) there are only a few shrivelled-up
grasshoppers left.
Milton P. Skinner (1928), referring to the feeding habits of this
woodpecker in North Carolina, writes: