BATCHELDER’S WOODPECKER
HABITS
The downy woodpecker inhabiting the Rocky Mountains and adjacent regions from southern Alaska to Arizona and New Mexico is described by Ridgway (1914) as “similar in large size and whiteness of under parts to D. p. nelsoni, but with less of white on wing-coverts, sometimes with none, the spots, when present, only on terminal or (usually) subterminal portion, and on only a few of the covert features.” It also differs from it in a “tendency to reduction or absence of bars on lateral rectrices.”
The common name of this woodpecker is in honor of Charles F. Batchelder, who first (1889) called the attention of American ornithologists to the characters of this race under the name D. p. oreoecus. Batchelder’s name was used in the 1895 A. O. U. Check-List, but it was later found to be antedated by Dryobates homorus of Cabanis and Heine, which was adopted in the 1910 Check-List. This was found to be still further antedated by the name Picus leucurus, given to the downy woodpecker of the Rocky Mountains by Hartlaub in 1852. It seems rather strange that this race remained so long unrecognized in this country. This may be due to the fact that this woodpecker seems to be a comparatively rare bird throughout most of its range.
The Weydemeyers (1928) say of its occurrence in northwestern Montana:
A rather rare permanent resident, irregular in winter. Occurs throughout the county, but is rare at high elevations. It frequents mixed broad-leaf and conifer woods along the lower streams, where it undoubtedly breeds in preference to other locations. During winter it is often seen about farmsteads and pastures, and in bordering woods of Douglas fir, yellow pine, and larch. In the Canadian zone it occurs sparingly in lodgepole pine and alpine fir (Abies lasiocarpa) woods, usually along streams.
In the western half of the county, an observer may consider himself fortunate to see an individual of this species twice a week. In the eastern portion, during July and August, along Transition zone streams, one or two birds may be seen nearly every day.
We have obtained no definite nesting dates for this species, although it evidently breeds in suitable locations. On July 22, 1923, a brood of young on the wing was seen near Fortine in woods of spruce and aspen, in the Transition zone, at 2,960 feet altitude.
Major Bendire (1895) writes:
Dr. Edgar A. Mearns, United States Army, reports it breeding sparingly throughout the Pinus ponderosa belt, ascending into the Spruce zone, on the San Francisco cone, and considers it the rarest of the woodpeckers found in Arizona. Mr. Denis Gale took a nest and eggs of this subspecies in Boulder County, Colorado, on June 12, 1889. The excavation was found in a half-dead aspen, 30 feet from the ground, and presumably well up in the mountains, as Mr. William G. Smith informs me that it is only a winter visitor in the lower valleys, and is never seen there during warm weather. I found it rare near Fort Custer, Montana, and only obtained a single male specimen, on November 23, 1884, among the willows and cottonwoods on the Little Horn River. Dr. James C. Merrill, United States Army, met with it breeding at Fort Shaw, Mont., early in June, 1879, and tells me that five or six eggs are generally laid to a set, and that the nesting habits are just like those of the downy woodpecker.
Lee R. Dice (1918) says that, in southeastern Washington, it is “numerous throughout the year in the timber along the Touchet River near Prescott.
“* * * On June 11, 1908, a nest containing young was found four feet from the ground in an apple tree near Prescott. The female was seen gathering large, red aphids from nearby golden-rod. She would gather all her mouth could hold and until the aphids stuck out like a fringe all around the edges of the bill. Then she flew in a direct line toward the nest. This female was also seen to gather aphids from apple trees.”
A set of four eggs in the Thayer collection was taken near Fort Shaw, Mont., on June 8, 1879; the nesting cavity was 12 feet from the ground in a dead tree and was excavated to a depth of 10 inches. The eggs are characteristic of the species, short-ovate in shape, dull white in color, and only slightly glossy.
The measurements of 28 eggs average 19.86 by 15.29 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure 23.37 by 16.00, 19.0 by 14.8, and 18.4 by 14.4 millimeters.