ARIZONA WOODPECKER
HABITS
Strickland’s woodpecker (Dryobates stricklandi), a Mexican species, was formerly recorded from southern Arizona by some of the early writers; but Edward Hargitt (1886) discovered that the Arizona bird was specifically distinct, described it, and named it as a new species, Picus arizonae. He gave it the following diagnosis: “P. similis P. stricklandi, sed dorso uniformi nec albofasciato distinguendus.” The two species are quite similar in general appearance, but stricklandi has the median portion of the back and the whole rump broadly barred or transversely spotted with white, whereas in arizonae these parts are uniformly plain brown, and the markings on the under parts are in the form of large rounded or subcordate spots, instead of streaks.
The range of the Arizona woodpecker includes southeastern Arizona, southwestern New Mexico, Sonora, Chihuahua, and northwestern Durango; it is another one of those Mexican species that barely crosses our southwestern border.
Henry W. Henshaw (1875) was the first to report this woodpecker, under the name of Strickland’s woodpecker, as entitled to a place in our fauna; he writes: “This rare woodpecker is a common species on the foothills of the Chiricahua Mountains, where it was one of the first birds that met my eye when the section where it abounds was first entered. Whether it extends upward, and finds its home during a portion of the year among the pines that here begin at an altitude of about 1,000 [10,000?] feet, I do not know. So far as I could ascertain, at this season at least [August], it is confined to the region of the oaks, ranging from about 4,000 to 7,000 feet, thus inhabiting a region about midway between the low valleys and the mountain districts proper.”
Harry S. Swarth (1904) writes: “Although the Arizona Woodpecker is resident the year through in the Huachucas, it is singular how the birds seem to disappear in the breeding season, that is from the middle of April to the middle of June, when the young birds begin to leave the nest. During this time their loud shrill call may be occasionally heard from some wooded hillside, but the birds themselves are seldom seen. I have taken specimens from the base of the mountains, about 4,500 feet altitude, up to 8,000 feet, but they are not often seen above 7,000 feet.”
Nesting.—We found the Arizona woodpecker well distributed in Ramsay Canyon in the Huachuca Mountains from the base of the mountains up to 7,500 feet, but nowhere common. On April 15, 1922, while exploring the lower part of the canyon, which is quite heavily wooded with giant sycamores, various oaks, ash, maples, black walnut, and locusts, we saw an Arizona woodpecker excavating a nest hole in a solid dead stub, about 50 feet up near the top of one of the big sycamores. The hole was on the under side of the stub and deep enough to take in all the bird but the tail. A red-shafted flicker was “yuckering” in the top of another big tree, and I think it had designs on this nest, for it subsequently drove away the Arizona woodpecker; and later on the nest was found to have been deserted. We found only one occupied nest; this was at an altitude of about 7,500 feet in a branch of Ramsay Canyon; it was about 20 feet from the ground in a dead branch of a small walnut tree, which was growing up through an oak on the steep mountain side; the entrance to the cavity, which was about 12 inches deep, was well hidden; it contained three eggs well advanced in incubation on May 16, 1922. The birds were heard in the vicinity, and one was seen to relieve the other on the nest. Frank C. Willard’s notes record the finding of two nests of this woodpecker in the same region on May 24, 1899; these were both in dead branches of oak trees; one was 15 and one 18 feet from the ground, and the nesting cavities were both 12 inches deep; “one bird was seen to leave the nest and the other one entered it; after it got in, it stuck its head out and uttered one sharp note, like a grosbeak’s, which was answered by its mate.”
Major Bendire (1895) mentions a nest, found by Dr. A. K. Fisher in Garden Canyon in the Huachuca Mountains, on May 14, that was “in a large maple which overhung a stream. The cavity was situated in a dry branch, about 20 feet from the ground, and was about a foot in depth. It contained four young, which were still naked.” There are two sets of four eggs each in the Thayer collection; one was taken by O. W. Howard in the Huachuca Mountains on April 24, 1902, from a nest in a mescal stalk, 8 feet from the ground; the other was collected by Virgil W. Owen in the Chiricahua Mountains, on April 22, 1906; the entrance to the cavity was 9 feet up on the under side of a slightly leaning, dead and decaying stub of an oak limb in a dead tree.
Eggs.—The Arizona woodpecker apparently lays either three or four eggs; we have no record of more or fewer. The few that I have seen are practically ovate; they are pure white and some are quite glossy, others less so. The measurements of 27 eggs average 22.82 by 17.33 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure 24.0 by 18.0, 19.9 by 16.7, and 22.5 by 16.5 millimeters.
Young.—The period of incubation does not seem to have been definitely determined, but it is probably about 14 days, as with other Dryobates. Both sexes assist in this task, and probably in the care of the young.
H. S. Swarth (1904) writes:
About the third week in April they commence laying their eggs, and after the middle of June the young birds begin to leave the nest, and soon become quite abundant. I have never had any difficulty in approaching these birds as they are usually quite tame and unsuspicious; far more so than the generality of woodpeckers, and the young birds are noticeably so. I have several times stood within ten feet of a young bird, easily distinguishable by his red cap, as he was industriously pounding on a limb without seeming in the least disturbed by my presence, or showing any inclination to leave. On one occasion the confiding, and in this case inquiring nature of the bird occasioned rather a laughable scene. An acquaintance in the mountains, passing the camp one day stopped to lead his horse down to the well which supplied us with water. A young Arizona Woodpecker was sitting in an oak tree close by, and soon after the horse began drinking he flew down, and lighting on the animal’s hind leg as on the side of a tree, hit it a vigorous rap or two. The horse and its owner appeared equally surprised, and both moving a little the bird retreated to his tree. It wasn’t a minute before he was back again, this time on a front leg, where he went to work with such energy as to start the horse plunging and kicking in an effort to get rid of its curious assailant. The woodpecker left but did not seem to be particularly frightened, as he sat on the wooden curb of the well until he was left alone again.
Plumages.—The young are hatched naked but acquire the juvenal plumage before leaving the nest. In three young males in my collection, taken on June 20, August 4, and August 30, the upper parts are much like those of the adult male, but the crown is more or less invaded with scarlet or vermilion-tipped feathers, sometimes with only a few scattered feathers and sometimes covering the whole crown and nape; they are more heavily spotted on the breast and more heavily barred on the belly than are the fall adults, and these markings are dark sepia, instead of black, and less well defined than in adults; the bills are smaller and weaker. Mr. Swarth (1904) says: “In the young female, besides occupying a less extensive surface, the red is less intense than in the male, and not as solid, that is there is always more or less brown showing through. The red cap of the juvenile bird seems to be worn but a short time, as a young female taken September 4 has hardly a trace of it remaining.”
Apparently the juvenal plumage is molted, including the wings and tail, late in August or September, when the first winter plumage, which is practically indistinguishable from that of the adult, is acquired. Mr. Swarth (1904) says of the molt of the adult:
The Arizona woodpecker commences to moult about the middle of July, and by the first week in September the new plumage is almost completely acquired. The plumage of the breast, abdomen, and lower parts generally, seems to be the first to be renewed, while the remiges, rectrices and feathers of the interscapular region are the last to get their growth. An old female shot on September 3 had practically completed its moult, with the exception of the tail feathers, none of which were over half an inch long; while several specimens of both sexes, taken during the last two weeks in August, are in nearly perfect autumnal plumage, except for some small patches of old feathers in the interscapular region. Fall specimens are considerably darker on the back than birds taken during the spring and summer, but the change is undoubtedly due to fading of the plumage, as birds taken in the late winter and early spring, show not the slightest traces of moult, and a series of birds taken from February to July, show plainly the gradual change of coloration. Singularly enough the pileum and back of the neck does not seem to fade as the dorsum does, and consequently, while birds in fresh fall plumage are of practically uniform coloration on the upper parts, specimens taken in the late spring and summer have the head and neck abruptly darker than the back and exposed portion of the wings. * * * Of twenty-four specimens from this region [Arizona] four show more or less traces of white bars across the rump; one of these is a male in nuptial plumage, one a male in freshly acquired autumnal plumage, one a female in nuptial plumage (this specimen has some faint indications of white bars on some of the scapulars as well), and one is a young male. Another spring female has some white bars on the scapulars but none on the rump. Presumably this is a tendency toward the Mexican species Dryobates stricklandi.
Food.—Very little seems to be recorded on the food of the Arizona woodpecker, which probably does not differ greatly from that of other members of the Dryobates group. It apparently feeds mainly on insects and their larvae, but to some extent on fruits and acorns. Mr. Henshaw (1875) says of its feeding habits: “When in pursuit of food, they almost always alighted near the base of the trees, gradually ascending, and making their way along the smaller limbs, and even out among the foliage, appearing to prefer to secure their food by a careful search rather than by the hard labor of cutting into the wood in the way the hairy woodpecker employs its strength.”
Behavior.—The same observer says of their habits:
Here they appeared to be perfectly at home, climbing over the trunks of the oaks with the same ease and rapidity of movement that distinguish the motions of the downy or hairy woodpecker; though their habits, in so far as they are at all peculiar, are, perhaps, best comparable to those of the red-cockaded woodpecker of the South (P. borealis), especially their custom of moving about in small companies of from five to fifteen, though they were occasionally found singly or in pairs. * * *
I found them at all times rather shy, and gifted with very little of that prying curiosity which is seen in some of the better known species of this family; and if by chance I surprised a band feeding among the low trees, a sharp warning note, from some member more watchful than the rest, communicated alarm to the whole assembly, when they took flight immediately, showing great dexterity in dodging behind trunks and limbs, and making good their retreat by short flights from one tree to another till they were out of sight.
In the Whetstone Mountains, Ariz., Austin Paul Smith (1908) observed a female Arizona woodpecker—
working on an oak-trunk, not three feet above the base; while the trees around harbored unnumbered Bridled Tits (Baeolophus wollweberi), Lead-colored Bush-tits (Psaltriparus plumbeus) and Rocky Mountain Nuthatches (Sitta carolinensis nelsoni). Very often did I run across a similar assemblage, but rarely were there more than one or two Arizona Woodpeckers in it. There is no recollection at hand, of noting above four adult woodpeckers of this species in view at once; more likely to chance upon a solitary individual than a pair at any time. The noisiest occasion I can accredit to the species occurred one spring day when two adult females were located, perched upon a horizontal limb of a madrona, facing each other, and emitting a continuous volume of characteristic woodpecker notes, the effect being heightened by that peculiar muscular movement which accompanies the vocal utterances of some Pici. The continuity was possible by a relay system; and so engrossed were the participants, that I approached to directly under the limb and stood there at least two minutes, without being detected.
F. H. Fowler (1903) writes:
The Arizona woodpecker (Dryobates arizonae) is, outside of the alpine three-toed and pileated, the most interesting member of the woodpecker family, that I have ever seen. So far as I have noted, the species is never common, never noisy, and never at rest. I have not found it except in live-oak woods, and at Fort Huachuca; on a good field day I used to see about six on an average. Not even the chickadees are as active as this little woodpecker. He will alight on the main trunk of the tree, or generally one of the largest limbs, and the moment his claws are fastened in the bark he begins an untiring search for insects and grubs. He ascends rapidly in spirals picking and prying away small pieces of bark in search of food; when a promising limb is reached out he goes on it, often on the lower side. The search over in one tree, he wastes no time in looking around, but launches out, with barely a glance to determine the course, in his undulating flight to the next, there to repeat the performance. When closely approached, he works around the tree without paying any especial attention to the intruder, and when thoroughly frightened he will take flight with as little warning as he does when simply in search of food. While going up the tree he gives, from time to time, a characteristic call, much like that of the hairy woodpecker.
Field marks.—The Arizona woodpecker should be easily recognized, as it is the only small woodpecker that has a uniformly brown, unmarked back and crown, and lower parts thickly spotted with black; the adult male has a red patch on the nape, and young birds of both sexes have more or less red in the crown, less in the female than in the male.
Winter.—This woodpecker is a permanent resident in southern Arizona, moving down from the higher parts of the mountains to the lower levels in winter. Mr. Swarth (1904) says that “in the winter they seem to more particularly favor the large groves of live-oaks along the foot-hills and at the mouths of the canyons; scattering over the mountains and ascending to rather a higher elevation upon the advent of the breeding season.” W. E. D. Scott (1886) writes: “Rarely have I met with more than two in company, and a family, two parents and three young, were the most I ever saw associated together. But I frequently met in the fall a party composed of Arizona jays, California woodpeckers, various Titmice and Warblers, and a pair of Strickland’s [Arizona] woodpeckers. The birds I have met with them appear late in January or early in February, and are apparently already mated.”
DISTRIBUTION
Range.—Southwestern New Mexico, southeastern Arizona, and western Mexico; nonmigratory.
The Arizona woodpecker is found north to southeastern Arizona (Canada del Oro and the Whetstone Mountains); and southwestern New Mexico (probably the Animas Mountains and the San Luis Mountains). East to southwestern New Mexico (San Luis Mountains); Chihuahua (Cajon Bonito, Colonia Garcia, Temosachic, and Apache); Durango (Metalotes and Arroyo del Buey); and Zacatecas (Sierra de Valparaiso). South to Zacatecas (Sierra de Valparaiso) and Jalisco (Nevada Volcanoe, Colima Volcanoe, Tonila, and San Marcos.) West to Jalisco (San Marcos and Bolanos); eastern Sinaloa (Sierra de Choix); central Sonora (La Chumata mine and Saric); and southeastern Arizona (Huachuca Mountains, Santa Rita Mountains; Rincon Mountains Pantano, and Canada del Oro).
The range as outlined is for the entire species, which has been divided into two geographic races, the true Arizona woodpecker (D. a. arizonae), occupying the northern part of the area south to northwestern Durango, and the Colima woodpecker (D. a. fraterculus), occupying the rest of the range in Mexico.
Egg dates.—Arizona: 8 records, April 20 to May 16.