Part 5

_Eggs._--The southern hairy woodpecker is said to lay three to six eggs. The latter number must be unusual, as the set generally consists of three or four eggs. The eggs are scarcely distinguishable from those of other hairy woodpeckers, though they average somewhat smaller than those of the more northern races. The measurements of 42 eggs average 21.29 by 18.29 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure =26.1= by 19.2, 25.8 by =19.8=, =21= by 19, and 23.8 by =16.6= millimeters.

_Food._--Major Bendire (1895) says that this subspecies seems to be fonder of fruit and berries than are the northern races and that “the young are fed largely on figs.” Audubon (1842) says that in the salt marshes about the mouths of the Mississippi “it alights against the stalks of the largest and tallest reeds, and perforates them as it is wont to bore into trees. * * * I have often observed it clinging to the stalks of the sugar-cane, boring them, and apparently greatly enjoying the sweet juices of that plant; and when I have seen it, in severe winter weather, attempting to bore the dried stalks of maize, I have thought it expected to find in them something equally pleasing to its taste.”

Milton P. Skinner (1928) says of these birds, in the sandhills of North Carolina: “In winter the hairy woodpeckers vary their diet of insects with various berries and dried wild fruits. They are particularly fond of the small black berries of the sour gum (_Nyssa sylvatica_). Soon after the early frosts the birds flock to these swamp trees and feast as long as the berries last.”

The main food supply of this and other woodpeckers consists of insects and their larvae, which are obtained by searching in the crevices in the bark of whatever trees are available, or drilling into the trunks and branches to find the grubs. Mr. Skinner (1928) saw one working on “a charred and dead stub of a shrub oak. Here it worked steadily for fifteen minutes pulling out small white grubs and borers. It drove its bill for three or four strokes up under a bit of bark and then pried the bark off with its bill as a lever. Then it attacked the semi-rotten wood so uncovered, directly. It did not seem to work so fast as a downy woodpecker, but then it was so busy eating grubs that it did not have to dig much.”

_Behavior._--The same observer says:

They do not show a preference for any one kind of tree but are found on both living and dead shrub oaks, long-leafed pines, loblolly pine, sycamore, sour gum and sweet gum. They work on both trunks and limbs but usually at low heights, from the ground up to twenty feet above. On a vertical surface these birds work up, spiraling it and tapping it as they go. They move by a series of short hops, propping themselves each time with their tails. When hopping lightly along a horizontal limb they still use their tails as props. Perhaps their most astonishing feat is to spiral horizontal limbs, and to cling beneath them and hammer them with their backs down. Sometimes they work their way up to the very tip of slender shoots.

Even in a heavy wind they cling to the violently swaying twigs while eating, but they stay only a short time before flying to a tree trunk to perch and rest before trying it again. * * *

The flight of these birds is strong and undulating, with fast beating wings, and generally only from one tree to the next. Where the trees are not very close together, they swoop down to within a few feet of the ground and then fly with nearly level flight until they glide up to their next stopping place. Where they have to fly out across intervening open fields their flight becomes more undulatory, at times deeply so.

DRYOBATES VILLOSUS HARRISI (Audubon)

HARRIS’S WOODPECKER

PLATES 4, 5

HABITS

The range of this well-marked subspecies is now restricted to the humid coast belt from southern British Columbia southward to Humboldt County, Calif. In 1895, Bendire wrote:

Until within the last few years all the Hairy Woodpeckers from the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific coast have been considered as belonging to this subspecies. * * *

The breeding range of this race, as now considered, is a very limited one, and is probably coextensive with its geographical distribution. It is apparently confined to the immediate vicinity of the coast, and is not found at any great distance inland. Among the specimens collected by me at Fort Klamath, Oregon (mostly winter birds), there are two which might be called intermediates between this and the more recently separated _Dryobates villosus hyloscopus_, but the majority are clearly referable to the latter. In the typical Harris’s woodpecker the under parts are much darker, a smoky brown, in fact; it is also somewhat larger and very readily distinguishable from the much lighter-colored and somewhat smaller Cabanis’s woodpecker.

Dawson and Bowles (1909) say: “Doctor Cooper judged the Harris to be the most abundant Woodpecker in Western Washington; and this, with the possible exception of the Flicker (_Colaptes cafer saturatior_), is still true. The bird ventures well out upon the eastern slopes of the Cascade Mountains, and is found sparingly in the higher mountain valleys; but its favorite resorts are burns and the edges of clearings, rather than the depths of the woods.”

Johnson A. Neff (1928) quotes Dr. I. N. Gabrielson as saying: “The Harris woodpecker is found throughout western Oregon from the western slope of the Cascades to the coast, altho in the Rogue River Valley some specimens which are close to ‘orius’ have been taken. I have one labeled ‘orius’ by Dr. H. C. Oberholser, also have typical Harris from this district, so that this is probably the region of intergradation between these two forms.”

Harris’s woodpecker, like many other races of the humid Northwest coast region, is darkly colored, one of the most easily recognized of all the hairy woodpeckers. Even in Audubon’s day it was recognized, described, figured, and named by him in honor of his friend Edward Harris. Ridgway (1914) describes it as “similar to _D. v. hyloscopus_, but under parts (including lateral rectrices) light drab or buffy drab-gray, instead of white or nearly white, the head-stripes and stripe on back also usually more or less suffused with the same color, often uniformly light drab; average size slightly larger.”

_Courtship._--Theed Pearse (1934) gives us the following interesting description of the courtship display of this woodpecker:

There were two males on the limb of a small cedar and my attention was first drawn to them by their note, which is very similar to the flicker’s “wickety” note but softer, and might almost be described as “caressingly soft.” Both birds were calling.

The displaying bird would draw in its head so that no neck was apparent, with beak pointed outwards and upwards and would then slowly swing the upper part of the body from side to side, thereby bringing into play the red nape marking. Once the bird very rapidly lifted its wings into an upright position, at other times there was a quivering flicking motion of the wings as they lay against the sides.

The two birds flew to another branch, settling side by side and instantly each froze, the neck drawn in and the beak pointed upwards. They were perched sideways on the branch and were displaying the white markings in the tail which each of them would slightly spread and turn out (to one side). The feathers of the back were at the same time hunched up as though to show up the white markings there also. They did this several times before flying off together.

_Nesting._--Although this is evidently a common bird within its restricted range, surprisingly little has appeared in print regarding its nesting habits. Authentic eggs seem to be very rare in collections; most of the eggs in collections, of which I have the records, that are labeled _harrisi_, prove to be referable to one of the neighboring subspecies.

D. E. Brown writes to me:

Its nesting cavities may be at any height from 4 feet to well over 100 feet from the ground. I found a nest 8 feet up in an 8-inch dead fir stub in a dry open locality. The female flushed from the nest, and the date was just right for fresh eggs, May 6. The cavity was carefully opened. It was 16 inches deep and contained a single egg. This egg was so fresh and the shell so clear that the yolk could be plainly seen. The cavity was carefully repaired with bark from the stub, held in place with black thread. Both birds were near all this time, complaining loudly. I returned in five days. The bark was still in place, but the egg was gone. The dust from the decaying stub, where the egg had been, was very dry, and I am of the opinion that the parent bird had removed the egg.

G. D. Sprot has sent me a beautiful photograph (pl. 4) of a nesting site of this woodpecker in a dead alder stump in a coniferous forest clearing, near Mill Bay, Vancouver Island, taken May 23, 1928.

Dawson and Bowles (1909) say:

The nest of this bird is usually placed well up in a small dead fir tree in some burn or slashing on dry ground. It is about ten inches deep and has no lining save fine chips, among which the crystal white eggs, four or five in number, lie partially imbedded. Incubation is begun from the last week in April to the last week in May, according to altitude, and but one brood is raised in a season. These Woodpeckers are exceptionally valiant in defense of their young, the male in particular becoming almost beside himself with rage at the appearance of an enemy near the home nest.

S. F. Rathbun sends me the following note on a Harris’s woodpecker that made an attempt to dig a nesting hole in a small young fir topped about 10 feet up: “The tree had been cut off so that it could be used as one of the supports of a cross piece to which a swing was attached. The woodpecker began to dig a hole in the topped upright, and the owner of the place called me up and wanted to know what the bird was and what it was up to. I told him all about it and suggested that he keep away from the stub. Two weeks later, I asked him how the bird was getting on. He said at first the bird was busy digging away every day, but of late seemed to have something the matter with it, for ‘lately every day it just sat with its head sticking out of the hole and did no work on it.’ I cut a piece from the edge of the entrance and quickly found out. When the crossbar for the swing had been nailed to the sapling, a 10-inch spike was used to hold it; and this had gone nearly through the sapling. The woodpecker ran into this spike, as it was digging the hole, after progressing 6 inches or so downward. It did not seem able to go around the spike, although it had enlarged the cavity an inch on each side of the heavy nail and had cut away the wood for 2 inches or more below the spike. But the job proved to be too much for the bird, and it eventually gave up and disappeared. I told my friend to pull the spike and maybe next year the bird would be back. He followed my suggestion, and, the following spring, a Harris’s woodpecker showed up, dug a hole in the stub, and raised its young. This was repeated the next spring after, and then no return of the bird. So quite likely it may have been the same woodpecker.”

_Eggs._--Harris’s woodpecker apparently lays four or five eggs, probably seldom fewer or more. Bendire (1895) was evidently unable to locate any properly identified eggs of this race, and I have not fared much better. The eggs are probably indistinguishable from the eggs of other hairy woodpeckers of similar size. The measurements of 34 eggs average 25.29 by 18.91 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure =27.9= by 19.6, 25.46 by =20.32=, =22.86= by 18.29, and 23.5 by =17.5= millimeters.

_Food._--J. A. Neff (1928) says:

A total of 57 stomachs of hairy woodpeckers were taken for the present study, over three fourths of them of the Harris type. The months were represented by fairly even numbers of specimens. Analysis of these stomachs shows a considerable variation from the results of Professor Beal’s California studies. The total animal food averaged 82.00 percent, while vegetable matter made up the other 18.00 percent.

The larvae of wood-boring beetles, Cerambycids and Buprestids, composed 49.00 percent of the total. This total is unexceeded in Federal studies of birds. Since these two groups of borers include species doing enormous damage to both forest and ornamental trees, as well as to orchards, this item of food alone almost settles the question of the utility of having woodpeckers. * * *

The vegetable food was of little value economically. Fruits, of small wild varieties, totaled 6.00 percent, and seeds, mostly of coniferous trees, averaged 12.00 percent.

_Behavior._--Taylor and Shaw (1927) made the following interesting observation:

As is well known, western Washington is a region of copious rainfall. During the frequent downpours one can not help speculating on the manner in which the different birds and mammals avoid injury from the damp and chill of the storm. The thick foliage of firs and hemlocks is well suited, in many instances, to serve as a thatched roof: and in the deep woods there are many big branches and large logs under which birds--and mammals too--find dry retreats. During the heaviest rain of the summer a Harris woodpecker was frightened from its shelter beneath a huge log in the heavy forest of Tahoma Creek Canyon. Here the bird was keeping perfectly dry. One can imagine its displeasure at being driven out from its comfortable refuge into the drenching rain.

_Winter._--D. E. Brown says in his notes: “Early in fall Harris’s woodpecker very often excavates a cavity that is its winter home. It can be found there every night and quite often in the daytime on stormy days. It is not always secure in this retreat. Such a cavity was made in a partly dead stub, about 20 feet high, just back of my house. Frequent visits were made to find out how much the nest was used. At first the bird, a male, would fly to a nearby tree when I rapped on the stub, but soon it contented itself with just coming to the opening. One time, while I was in plain sight of the stub, a western pileated woodpecker alighted at the cavity and proceeded to open it up, which it did clear to the bottom in less than three minutes. It had taken the Harris about a week to dig it out.”

Dawson and Bowles (1909) say: “The Harris woodpecker visits the winter troupes only in a patronizing way. He is far too restless and independent to be counted a constant member of any little gossip club, and, except briefly during the mating season and in the family circle, he is rarely to be seen in the company of his own kind.”

DRYOBATES VILLOSUS HYLOSCOPUS Cabanis and Heine

CABANIS’S WOODPECKER

HABITS

The hairy woodpeckers of the coast district of California from Mendocino County southward, the mountains of southern California, and the southern Sierra Nevada, as far east as White Mountains of California, are now known by the above name. This race is somewhat smaller than _harrisi_ and decidedly smaller than _orius_, its neighboring races to the northward; its under parts are much lighter colored than in _harrisi_; these parts are described by Ridgway (1914) as “dull grayish or brownish white or pale drab-grayish or buffy grayish.” This and the Sierra woodpecker (_orius_) seem to form connecting links between the dark-breasted _harrisi_ and the white-breasted Rocky Mountain forms, _monticola_ and _leucothorectis_, both of which are decidedly larger also.

Dr. Joseph Grinnell (1908) says of the distribution of this woodpecker in the San Bernardino Mountains in southern California: “This was the most widely distributed species of woodpecker in the region, occurring throughout the timbered portions, irrespective of zones. It was common from Santa Ana Cañon to the summit of Sugarloaf, 9,800 feet, and nearly to timber line on San Gorgonio peak. On the desert side the species was noted as low as Cactus Flat, 6,000 feet, where one was seen in some golden oaks in a ravine, August 16, 1905.”

_Courtship._--The drumming of woodpeckers in the spring on some resonant limb or tree trunk is an important part of the courtship urge, as a warning to any rival, or as a call to a possible mate. Dr. Grinnell (1908) shows how the manner of drumming may also serve as a recognition call; he says: “The resonant rattling drum identified this species from any other of this region. Near Dry lake, 9,000 feet altitude, dead tamarack pines were selected for this purpose, and on June 23, 1905, I listened for many minutes to a remarkable demonstration of this kind. Different branches were tattoed in rapid succession, so that a xylophone-like variety of tones was produced, very impressive and far-carrying through the otherwise quiet forest.”

_Nesting._--Major Bendire (1895) writes:

In California Cabanis’ Woodpecker is common in the mountains, but in the lowlands in the southern part of this State Mr. F. Stephens considers it a rather rare summer resident. He found it breeding in a cottonwood tree, near San Bernardino, on March 21, 1885. Mr. Lyman Belding took several nests of this subspecies in Calaveras County, in the Sierra Nevadas; in one, found on June 6, 1879, which had been excavated in a dead pine stump, 12 feet from the ground, the eggs, three in number, were on the point of hatching. In his notes he says: “I scared the female from it and prevented her return by inserting a stick, the end of which protruded for several feet. When she found she could not enter she gave several cries, which brought the male, who hopped up and down the stick a few times, striking it with his bill and screaming angrily, pausing occasionally, and apparently deliberating on the best method of extracting it.” Another nest, found by him on July 10, 1880, was located only 3 feet from the ground, and contained young which were still in the nest on the 20th. Mr. Charles A. Allen informs me that along the Sacramento River, in California, it breeds in sycamores and willows, but that it is not common there.

_Eggs._--Major Bendire (1895) says:

The number of eggs laid to a set varies from three to six; those of four are by far the most common; sets of five are only occasionally met with, while sets of six are very unusual. * * * The eggs lie on the fine chips left in the bottom of the cavity, and are occasionally well packed into these, so that only about one-half of the egg is visible. They resemble the eggs of _Dryobates villosus_ in color, but those of an elliptical ovate shape are more common than the oval and elliptical ovals, averaging, therefore, more in length, while there is proportionally less difference in their short diameter.

The measurements of 23 eggs average 24.49 by 18.38 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure =25.7= by 18.2, 24.2 by =19.7=, =22.8= by 18.1, and 24.9 by =16.5= millimeters.

_Young._--Mrs. Irene G. Wheelock (1904) says: “Both sexes share the labors of excavating, brooding the eggs, and feeding the young. Incubation lasts about fifteen days, and the young remain nearly four weeks in the nest, being fed most of that time by regurgitation. After leaving they are fed by the parents for at least two weeks, and usually return to the nest at night to sleep.”

_Food._--W. Leon Dawson (1923) writes: “Nearly half of the Cabanis Woodpecker’s food consists of the larvae of wood-boring beetles (the _Cerambycidae_ and _Buprestidae_); and of the remainder the caterpillars of various injurious moths form a large per cent. Wild raspberries and blackberries are eaten in summer, and certain hardy fruits, such as cornel berries, acorns, and the pits of the islay, or evergreen cherry (_Prunus ilicifolia_), eke out the winter sustenance.”

Referring to its manner of feeding, Milton P. Skinner says in his notes: “On August 10, 1933, I saw a Cabanis working on both the trunk and the limbs of a small Douglas fir. It worked all around a horizontal limb and really seemed to be under the limb more than above. It also worked on upright branches as well. I have also seen a Cabanis feeding on the bark of a lodgepole pine. One day I found one on a dead black oak, scaling off dead bark to get at the insects beneath. So far as I can tell, these birds, in the Sequoia National Park, seem to prefer to pick food from the surface and furrows in the bark, and do not bore into the bark and wood as much as other woodpeckers. During my work among the Big Trees, I noticed that these birds seem to avoid the sequoia’s bark; but at one place I found a living tree with many holes bored in the old wood of its charred base, where it was unprotected by bark.”

_Behavior._--Mr. Skinner’s notes say that “this woodpecker has quite a few mannerisms of its own. One, seen flying across a meadow, went first to the limbs of Douglas firs, then to a small dead limb of a sequoia, then to the limb of a fir, and then to the trunk of the same fir. It perched lengthwise of limb and trunk each time. And this procedure was followed again and again on different days. Usually the Cabanis perches crosswise on a horizontal limb, especially when resting or preening, but lengthwise on erect, or nearly erect, trunks and limbs when feeding.

“Although this woodpecker almost always flies to the exact spot it selects, its flight through the forest is undulatory. The undulations are due to the fact that it progresses by a series of wing beats. At the end of each series, it seems to actually close its wings and shoot forward with the impetus gained.”

DRYOBATES VILLOSUS MONTICOLA Anthony

ROCKY MOUNTAIN HAIRY WOODPECKER

HABITS

This large, white-breasted hairy woodpecker inhabits the Rocky Mountain region, in the Canadian and Transition Zones, from central British Columbia and Montana southward to eastern Utah and northern New Mexico, and eastward to western South Dakota and western Nebraska. Ridgway (1914) characterizes it as “similar, in large size and whiteness of under parts, to _D. v. septentrionalis_, but with white spots on wing-coverts much reduced in size or number, or altogether wanting.” It evidently intergrades with _septentrionalis_ in Montana and Wyoming and probably with the more western races west of the Rocky Mountains.

Milton P. Skinner tells me that in the Yellowstone National Park it “occurs at all elevations from the lowest at 5,500 feet to timberline at 9,500 feet above sea level, but never far from a tree of some kind. It is a resident bird here but moves down from the mountain heights at the approach of winter.”