Part 1
Transcriber's Note: In Memory of
Chris Curnow (1937-2023)
the Project Manager at Distributed Proofreaders who selected this book, and more than 2200 others, to be preserved as free digital transcriptions by Project Gutenberg.
* * * * *
LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS
Arthur Cleveland Bent
LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS OF PREY. (20931-8, 20932-6) Two-volume
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LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN GALLINACEOUS BIRDS. (21028-6) $8.00
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LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN NUTHATCHES, WRENS, THRASHERS, AND THEIR ALLIES. (21088-X) $7.00
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LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN WAGTAILS, SHRIKES, VIREOS, AND THEIR ALLIES. (21085-5) $6.00
LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN WOODPECKERS. (21083-9)
LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN WOOD WARBLERS. (21153-3, 21154-1) Two-volume set $13.90
_LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN WOODPECKERS_
_LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN WOODPECKERS_
_by Arthur Cleveland Bent_
_Dover Publications, Inc. New York_
Published in Canada by General Publishing Company, Ltd., 30 Lesmill Road, Don Mills, Toronto, Ontario.
Published in the United Kingdom by Constable and Company, Ltd., 10 Orange Street, London WC 2.
This Dover edition, first published in 1964, is an unabridged and unaltered republication of the work originally published in 1939 by the United States Government Printing Office, as Smithsonian Institution United States National Museum _Bulletin 174_.
_Standard Book Number: 486-21083-9_ _Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 64-20879_
Manufactured in the United States of America Dover Publications, Inc. 180 Varick Street New York, N. Y. 10014
ADVERTISEMENT
The scientific publications of the National Museum include two series, known, respectively, as _Proceedings_ and _Bulletin_.
The _Proceedings_ series, begun in 1878, is intended primarily as a medium for the publication of original papers, based on the collections of the National Museum, that set forth newly acquired facts in biology, anthropology, and geology, with descriptions of new forms and revisions of limited groups. Copies of each paper, in pamphlet form, are distributed as published to libraries and scientific organizations and to specialists and others interested in the different subjects. The dates at which these separate papers are published are recorded in the table of contents of each of the volumes.
The series of _Bulletins_, the first of which was issued in 1875, contains separate publications comprising monographs of large zoological groups and other general systematic treatises (occasionally in several volumes), faunal works, reports of expeditions, catalogs of type specimens, special collections, and other material of similar nature. The majority of the volumes are octavo in size, but a quarto size has been adopted in a few instances in which large plates were regarded as indispensable. In the _Bulletin_ series appear volumes under the heading _Contributions from the United States National Herbarium_, in octavo form, published by the National Museum since 1902, which contain papers relating to the botanical collections of the Museum.
The present work forms No. 174 of the _Bulletin_ series.
ALEXANDER WETMORE, _Assistant Secretary, Smithsonian Institution_. WASHINGTON, D. C., _March 22, 1939_.
CONTENTS
Page
Introduction VII
Order PICIFORMES 1
Family Picidae: American woodpeckers 1
Campephilus principalis: Ivory-billed woodpecker 1 Habits 1 Distribution 12
Dryobates villosus villosus: Eastern hairy woodpecker 13 Habits 13 Distribution 23
Dryobates villosus septentrionalis: Northern hairy woodpecker 25 Habits 25
Dryobates villosus auduboni: Southern hairy woodpecker 27 Habits 27
Dryobates villosus harrisi: Harris’s woodpecker 29 Habits 29
Dryobates villosus hyloscopus: Cabanis’s woodpecker 33 Habits 33
Dryobates villosus monticola: Rocky Mountain hairy woodpecker 35 Habits 35
Dryobates villosus picoideus: Queen Charlotte woodpecker 37 Habits 37
Dryobates villosus terraenovae: Newfoundland woodpecker 38 Habits 38
Dryobates villosus icastus: Chihuahua woodpecker 39 Habits 39
Dryobates villosus sitkensis: Sitka hairy woodpecker 40 Habits 40
Dryobates villosus orius: Modoc woodpecker 41 Habits 41
Dryobates villosus scrippsae: Lower California hairy woodpecker 44 Habits 44
Dryobates villosus leucothorectis: White-breasted woodpecker 44 Habits 44
Dryobates pubescens pubescens: Southern downy woodpecker 45 Habits 45 Distribution 47
Dryobates pubescens gairdneri: Gairdner’s woodpecker 49 Habits 49
Dryobates pubescens leucurus: Batchelder’s woodpecker 51 Habits 51
Dryobates pubescens medianus: Northern downy woodpecker 52 Habits 52
Dryobates pubescens nelsoni: Nelson’s downy woodpecker 68 Habits 68
Dryobates pubescens turati: Willow woodpecker 69 Habits 69
Dryobates borealis: Red-cockaded woodpecker 72 Habits 72 Distribution 79
Dryobates scalaris symplectus: Texas woodpecker 79 Habits 79 Distribution 81
Dryobates scalaris lucasanus: San Lucas woodpecker 82 Habits 82
Dryobates scalaris cactophilus: Cactus woodpecker 83 Habits 83
Dryobates scalaris eremicus: San Fernando woodpecker 86 Habits 86
Dryobates nuttalli: Nuttall’s woodpecker 87 Habits 87 Distribution 91
Dryobates arizonae arizonae: Arizona woodpecker 91 Habits 91 Distribution 96
Dryobates albolarvatus albolarvatus: Northern white-headed woodpecker 97 Habits 97 Distribution 104
Dryobates albolarvatus gravirostris: Southern white-headed woodpecker 105 Habits 105
Picoïdes arcticus: Arctic three-toed woodpecker 106 Habits 106 Distribution 115
Picoïdes tridactylus bacatus: American three-toed woodpecker 116 Habits 116 Distribution 121
Picoïdes tridactylus fasciatus: Alaska three-toed woodpecker 122 Habits 122
Picoïdes tridactylus dorsalis: Alpine three-toed woodpecker 124 Habits 124
Sphyrapicus varius varius: Yellow-bellied sapsucker 126 Habits 126 Distribution 139
Sphyrapicus varius nuchalis: Red-naped sapsucker 141 Habits 141
Sphyrapicus varius daggetti: Southern red-breasted sapsucker 146 Habits 146
Sphyrapicus varius ruber: Northern red-breasted sapsucker 151 Habits 151
Sphyrapicus thyroideus thyroideus: Williamson’s sapsucker 154 Habits 154 Distribution 160
Sphyrapicus thyroideus nataliae: Natalie’s sapsucker 162 Habits 162
Ceophloeus pileatus pileatus: Southern pileated woodpecker 164 Habits 164 Distribution 170
Ceophloeus pileatus abieticola: Northern pileated woodpecker 171 Habits 171
Ceophloeus pileatus floridanus: Florida pileated woodpecker 189 Habits 189
Ceophloeus pileatus picinus: Western pileated woodpecker 191 Habits 191
Melanerpes erythrocephalus: Red-headed woodpecker 195 Habits 195 Distribution 208
Balanosphyra formicivora formicivora: Ant-eating woodpecker 211 Habits 211 Distribution 211
Balanosphyra formicivora bairdi: California woodpecker 212 Habits 212
Balanosphyra formicivora angustifrons: Narrow-fronted woodpecker 222 Habits 222
Balanosphyra formicivora aculeata: Mearns’s woodpecker 223 Habits 223
Balanosphyra formicivora martirensis: San Pedro woodpecker 226 Habits 226
Asyndesmus lewis: Lewis’s woodpecker 226 Habits 226 Distribution 236
Centurus carolinus: Red-bellied woodpecker 237 Habits 237 Distribution 244
Centurus aurifrons: Golden-fronted woodpecker 245 Habits 245 Distribution 249
Centurus uropygialis uropygialis: Gila woodpecker 250 Habits 250 Distribution 256
Centurus uropygialis cardonensis: Cardon woodpecker 257 Habits 257
Centurus uropygialis brewsteri: Brewster’s woodpecker 258 Habits 258
Colaptes auratus auratus: Southern flicker 259 Habits 259 Distribution 261
Colaptes auratus luteus: Northern flicker 264 Habits 264
Colaptes cafer collaris: Red-shafted flicker 287 Habits 287 Distribution 294
Colaptes cafer cafer: Northwestern flicker 296 Habits 296
Colaptes cafer martirensis: San Pedro flicker 298 Habits 298
Colaptes chrysoides chrysoides: Cape gilded flicker 299 Habits 299 Distribution 300
Colaptes chrysoides mearnsi: Mearns’s gilded flicker 301 Habits 301
Colaptes chrysoides brunnescens: San Fernando flicker 305 Habits 305
Colaptes cafer rufipileus: Guadalupe flicker 306 Habits 306
Literature cited 309
Index 323
INTRODUCTION
This is the twelfth in a series of bulletins of the United States National Museum on the life histories of North American birds. Previous numbers have been issued as follows:
107. Life Histories of North American Diving Birds, August 1, 1919. 113. Life Histories of North American Gulls and Terns. August 27, 1921. 121. Life Histories of North American Petrels and Pelicans and their Allies, October 19, 1922. 126. Life Histories of North American Wild Fowl (part), May 25, 1923. 130. Life Histories of North American Wild Fowl (part), June 27, 1925. 135. Life Histories of North American Marsh Birds, March 11, 1927. 142. Life Histories of North American Shore Birds (pt. 1), December 31, 1927. 146. Life Histories of North American Shore Birds (pt. 2), March 24, 1929. 162. Life Histories of North American Gallinaceous Birds, May 25, 1932. 167. Life Histories of North American Birds of Prey (pt. 1), May 3, 1937. 170. Life Histories of North American Birds of Prey (pt. 2), August 8, 1938.
The same general plan has been followed, as explained in previous bulletins, and the same sources of information have been utilized. The nomenclature of the 1931 check list of the American Ornithologists’ Union has been followed, but it has seemed best to continue in the same order of arrangement of families and species as given in the old check list (1910).
An attempt has been made to give as full a life history as possible of the best-known subspecies and to avoid duplication by writing briefly of the others and giving only the characters of the subspecies, its range, and any habits peculiar to it. In many cases certain habits, probably common to the species as a whole, have been recorded for only one subspecies; such habits are mentioned under the subspecies on which the observations were made. The distribution gives the range of the species as a whole, with only rough outlines of the ranges of the subspecies, which cannot be accurately defined in many cases.
The egg dates are the condensed results of a mass of records taken from the data in a large number of the best egg collections in the country, as well as from contributed field notes and from a few published sources. They indicate the dates on which eggs have been actually found in various parts of the country, showing the earliest and latest dates and the limits between which half the dates fall, the height of the season.
The plumages are described in only enough detail to enable the reader to trace the sequence of molts and plumages from birth to maturity and to recognize the birds in the different stages and at the different seasons. No attempt has been made to describe fully the adult plumages; this has been done very well in the many manuals and State bird books that are now available. The names of colors, when in quotation marks, are taken from Ridgway’s Color Standards and Color Nomenclature (1912), and the terms used to describe the shapes of eggs are taken from his Nomenclature of Colors (1886). The boldface type in the measurements of eggs indicates the four extremes of the measurements.
Many of those who contributed material for previous bulletins have continued to cooperate. Receipt of material from more than 430 contributors has been acknowledged previously. In addition to these, our thanks are due to the following new contributors: Dean Amadon, E. R. Forrest, Allen Frost, J. J. Hickey, Joseph Janiec, Melvin Johansen, M. B. Meanley, Jr., R. L. Meredith, E. E. Murphey, A. G. Nye, Jr., R. T. Orr, R. S. Palmer, Cordelia J. Stanwood, Wendell Taber, A. E. Thompson, and Mrs. L. J. Webster. If any contributor fails to find his name in this or in one of the previous lists, the author would be glad to be advised.
Egg measurements were furnished especially for this volume by Dean Amadon, A. M. Bailey, C. E. Doe, J. R. Gillin, W. C. Hanna, H. L. Harllee, R. C. Harlow, R. T. Orr, J. H. Riley, G. H. Stuart, 3d, and Miss M. W. Wythe.
Through the courtesy of the Bureau of Biological Survey, the services of Frederick C. Lincoln were again obtained to compile the distribution paragraphs. With the matchless reference files of the Biological Survey at his disposal, his many hours of careful work have produced results far more satisfactory than could have been attained by the author, who claims no credit and assumes no responsibility for this part of the work.
Dr. Winsor M. Tyler rendered valuable assistance in reading and indexing, for this group, the greater part of the leading periodicals relating to North American birds, which saved the author many hours of tedious work and for which he is very grateful. Dr. Tyler contributed the life histories of the northern downy woodpecker and yellow-bellied sapsucker, Dr. Arthur A. Allen wrote the life history of the ivory-billed woodpecker, Bayard H. Christy that of the northern pileated woodpecker, and Dr. Eugene E. Murphey that of the red-cockaded woodpecker. Thanks are due also to F. Seymour Hersey for figuring the egg measurements.
The manuscript for this volume was completed in June 1938. Contributions received since then will be acknowledged later. Only information of great importance could be added. The reader is reminded again that this is a cooperative work; if he fails to find in these volumes anything that he knows about the birds, he can blame himself for not having sent the information to--THE AUTHOR.
LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN WOODPECKERS
ORDER PICIFORMES
By ARTHUR CLEVELAND BENT _Taunton, Mass._
Order PICIFORMES
Family PICIDAE: American Woodpeckers
CAMPEPHILUS PRINCIPALIS (Linnaeus)
IVORY-BILLED WOODPECKER
PLATES 1, 2
HABITS
CONTRIBUTED BY ARTHUR AUGUSTUS ALLEN
The large size and striking color pattern, the mystery of its habitat, and the tragedy of its possible extinction combine to make the ivory-billed woodpecker one of peculiar interest to all Americans who have any pride in the natural resources of their country.
Ever since the days of Mark Catesby (1731) this species has attracted popular attention, and even at that time, as he stated in his Natural History of Carolina, Florida, and the Bahama Islands: “The bills of these Birds are much valued by the _Canada Indians_, who made Coronets of ’em for their Princes and great warriors, by fixing them round a Wreath, with their points outward. The Northern Indians having none of these Birds in their cold country, purchase them of the _Southern People_ at the price of two, and sometimes three, Buck-skins a Bill.” At that time the species was found throughout the Gulf States as far north as North Carolina and up the Mississippi Valley as far as southern Ohio and Illinois.
Today it is almost extinct, and indeed during the past 50 years long periods have elapsed when no individuals have been reported from any part of its range. It apparently has been exterminated from all but a few isolated localities in Louisiana, Florida, and South Carolina, where it still clings on in a precarious position.
The ivorybill is primarily a bird of the great moss-hung southern swamps, where mature timber with its dying branches provides a bounteous food supply of wood-boring larvae, but its habits apparently vary in different parts of its range, for the birds I observed in Florida, although nesting in a cypress swamp, did most of their feeding along its borders on recently killed young pines that were infested with beetle larvae. They even got down on the ground like flickers to feed among palmetto roots on a recent burn. In Louisiana, on the other hand, the nesting birds observed confined their activities to a mature forest of oak, sweetgum, and hackberry, and paid little attention to the cypress trees along the lagoons.
_Spring._--At what time the winter groups of ivorybills break up and spring activities commence is rather difficult to state, for there seems to be considerable irregularity to the breeding season. Judged from published records of its nests, the period of greatest activity would seem to be late March and early April. According to Audubon (1842): “The ivory-billed woodpecker nestles earlier in spring than any other species of its tribe. I have observed it boring a hole for that purpose in the beginning of March.” Scott (1881) reports taking an incubating female in Florida on January 20, 1880, and (1888) of finding a nest containing one young female about one-third grown on March 17, 1887. Ridgway (1898) likewise speaks of shooting a male that left its nest hole February 15, 1898, and Hoyt (1905) states that “in Florida they begin building the latter part of January, and if undisturbed the eggs are laid by February 10th.” In 1937 James Tanner (MS.) discovered a nest in Louisiana from which the fledgling left on March 30, fully 2 months earlier than any previous records from the same locality, and in 1938 apparently the same pair of birds had young the last week in February. In contrast to these dates we find 10 records of April nesting, 5 for May, and 1 (Beyer, 1900) of a young bird just out of the nest in July. The latter records might well constitute second attempts at nesting. The Florida birds, in general, start earlier than those in Louisiana, but at best there seems to be less regularity to the commencement of the nesting period than is found with most of our North American woodpeckers. In this, the ivorybill may register its affinity with tropical birds in general, the ivorybill being the most northern representative of an otherwise tropical or semitropical genus. There is some evidence for believing that ivorybills wander over considerably larger territories in winter than those to which they confine their activities in the spring, but little definite information has thus far been recorded on any of their before and after breeding activities.
_Courtship._--Nothing seems to have been written on the courtship of the ivorybill except the observations of Allen and Kellogg (1937):
Our only observations were made In Florida about 6 a. m., on April 13, 1924. We had discovered this pair of ivorybills at about the same time the preceding morning when they came out of the cypress swamp and preened their feathers and called a few times from the top of a dead pine before going off together to feed. They had made such a long flight the previous day that we were unable to find them again, but that night, still traveling together, they had returned to the same group of medium-sized cypress trees which they had apparently left in the morning and in which there was one fresh hole in addition to four or five other old ones in the near vicinity. On the morning of the 13th, they called as they left these cypress trees and flew to the top of a dead pine at the edge of the swamp, where they called and preened. Finally the female climbed up directly below the male and when she approached him closely he bent his head downward and clasped bills with her. The next instant they both flew out on to the “burn,” where we followed their feeding operations for about an hour.
_Nesting._--As before stated, while there are a few records of February nesting, the most definite records are for March, April, and early May, as follows:
April 6, ----. M. Thompson, Okefinokee swamp, Georgia. Laying. April 9, 1892. E. A. McIlhenny, Avery swamp, Louisiana. Three fresh eggs. April 10, ----. Dr. S. W. Wilson, Altamaha swamp, Georgia. Four eggs. April 15, 1893. A. Wayne, Florida. A young female about 2 weeks out of the nest. April 19, 1893. Ralph Collection, Lafayette County, Fla. Three eggs. May 2, 1892. E. A. McIlhenny, Avery swamp, Louisiana. Three eggs. May 19, 1892. E. A. McIlhenny, Avery swamp, Louisiana. Four eggs, a second laying. May (early) 1894. E. A. McIlhenny, Avery swamp., Louisiana. Five young, 3 days old. May 3, 1885. Capt. B. F. Goss, Jasper County, Tex. Three eggs. July 1897. George G. Beyer, Franklin Parish, La. March 4, 1904. Brown brothers (Hoyt), feeding young. March 16, 1904. R. D. Hoyt, Taylor County, Fla. Large young. March 4, 1905. E. D. Hoyt, Claremont County, Fla. Two eggs, incubation advanced. March 24, 1905. R. D. Hoyt, Claremont County, Fla. Two eggs slightly incubated (second laying of the preceding). April 13, 1924. A. A. Allen, Taylor Creek, Fla. Nest completed. Incubation not yet started. April (early) 1931. J. J. Kuhn, northern Louisiana. Incubating. May 13, 1934. J. J. Kuhn, northern Louisiana. Probably small young. April 6, 1935. A. A. Allen and P. P. Kellogg, northern Louisiana. Incubating. April 9, 1935. A. A. Allen and P. P. Kellogg, northern Louisiana. Building. April 25, 1935. A. A. Allen and P. P. Kellogg, northern Louisiana. Incubating. May 10, 1935. A. A. Allen and P. P. Kellogg, northern Louisiana. Small young.
Again quoting from the report of Allen and Kellogg (1937):
The site of the Ivorybill’s nest seems to vary considerably. Audubon states: “The hole is, I believe, always made in the trunk of a live tree, generally an ash or a hackberry, and is at a great height.” There are, however, records of their nesting in live cypress, partially dead oaks, a dead royal-palm stub, “an old and nearly rotten white elm stump,” etc., indicating about as great a variety as shown by the pileated woodpecker. The lowest authentic nest of which we have found a record, was that described by Beyer (1900) “about 25 feet up in a living over-cup oak,” although Scott (1881) mentions what he considered “an old nest evidently of this species,” in a palmetto stub only fifteen feet from the ground. The nest which we discovered in Florida, in 1924, was about thirty feet up in a live cypress and there were other holes in the vicinity in similar trees that had apparently been used in years past. The bark had healed over in some cases and scar tissue was apparently trying to close the wounds. Of the four nests examined in Louisiana, three were in oaks and one in a swamp maple. The maple, seven and a half feet in circumference (breast high), was partially alive, but the top where the nest was located, 43 feet from the ground, was dead and pithy. Of those in oak trees, one was in a dead pin-oak stub about ten feet in circumference and about fifty feet high, standing in more or less of a clearing. The nest was 47 feet 8 inches from the ground. The other two were not measured accurately but were certainly over forty feet from the ground. About the middle of May when it was determined that the first two trees had been deserted, they were cut down, careful measurements taken, and the contents of the holes preserved. The hole in the maple was 5 inches in vertical diameter and 4⅛ inches laterally, and was slightly irregular at the bottom, as shown in the photographs; that in the oak was more symmetrical with a similar vertical diameter of 5 inches and a transverse diameter of 4 inches. The depth of the maple nest from the top of the entrance hole was 19⅛ inches, of which 3 inches was filled with chips and “sawdust.” This nest cavity was 8⅛ inches in diameter at the egg level, and the tree itself 18½ inches in diameter at the level of the hole. The nest cavity in the oak was 20 inches from top to bottom with a diameter of 8¼ inches at the egg level. The entrance hole went in 3 inches before it turned abruptly downward; the tree at this point was 22 inches in diameter. There was a stub just above the hole in the maple about 4 inches long representing a branch that had apparently died and been broken off years before and started to heal over. The oak was perfectly smooth at the entrance hole, but on either side, slightly above, were the bases of two large branches that could not have given the opening any protection from the weather. The opening in the maple faced north, two of those in the oaks east, and one west. Audubon states: “The birds pay great regard to the particular situation of the tree and the inclination of the trunk; first, because they prefer retirement, and, again, because they are anxious to secure the aperture against the access of water during beating rains. To prevent such a calamity the hole is generally dug immediately under the juncture of a large branch with the trunk.” None of the nests examined by us showed this desire for protection from rain, and the chips at the bottom of the cavity were perfectly dry, though we had had some very heavy rains shortly before they were examined.