PICOÏDES TRIDACTYLUS BACATUS Bangs

AMERICAN THREE-TOED WOODPECKER

Plate [17]

HABITS

This North American race of the three-toed woodpecker occupies an extensive range in the Hudsonian and Canadian Zones of approximately the eastern half of Canada, which extends into some of the Northern States from Minnesota eastward. Two other races occupy similar zones in western Canada, Alaska, and the Rocky Mountains. The species is not particularly common anywhere, but the eastern race seems to be the best known. For a full discussion of the various races of the North American three-toed woodpeckers, the reader is referred to an extensive paper on the subject by Outram Bangs (1900). This woodpecker is not evenly distributed throughout its range but seems to be confined to certain rather limited and favorable localities. William Brewster (1898) found it breeding in the eastern part of Coos County, N. H., on the eastern side of a small pond; “where an elevated ridge approaches the pond the banks are above the reach of the highest floods and the land in the rear slopes gently upward. At this point a dense, vigorous forest of spruces, balsams and arbor vitaes, intermingled with a few deciduous trees, comes quite to the water’s edge and here, on June 2d, 1897, I found my first nest of the Banded Three-toed Woodpecker.”

In the same county, Charles L. Whittle (1920) found what he called a colony of three-toed woodpeckers in “a single small area of virgin forest containing abundant white spruces and balsams, the former splendid, healthy trees of large size, and the latter also large but having many trees diseased or decayed at the heart. * * * In the area of diseased balsams, a pleasant surprise awaited me, for here Three-toed Woodpeckers of both species, sexes, and all recognizable ages, were distinctly common—a colony, so to speak, temporarily concentrated owing to two factors: (1) The nearly complete destruction in this region of the former virgin forest of large conifers on which and in which they fed and nested; and (2) the presence of abundant food at this locality in the diseased balsam trees.”

Elon H. Eaton (1914) says:

In New York it is evidently confined to the Adirondack forests. I have heard of no specimen taken farther from the spruce belt than Waterville, Oneida county. It therefore shares with the Spruce grouse, the Canada jay and the Hudsonian chickadee the distinction of being one of our perfectly nonmigratory species. Within the spruce and balsam forests it is quite uniformly distributed, but is less common than the Black-backed woodpecker, evidently about one-half as common as that species. It inhabits both the spruce swamps and the mountain sides. While making the bird survey of the Mount Marcy district we found this species breeding on the slopes of Marcy just above Skylight camp, an altitude of 4,000 feet, and in the swamp at the Upper Ausable lake at an altitude of 2,000 feet.

Nesting.—Mr. Brewster (1898) describes, in considerable detail, the nest he found in a spruce tree in Coos County, N. H., as follows:

On measuring the spruce I found it to be thirty-nine inches in circumference one foot above the ground, and twenty-nine inches at the nest. The hole was on the west side at a height above the ground of exactly ten feet and eleven inches. The entrance hole was somewhat irregular outwardly measuring about one and three quarters inches in breadth by two inches in height—the greater diameter vertically being due to the fact that the lower edges had been chiselled away rather freely to afford a foothold for the bird; half an inch in, the hole was perfectly round, and measured one and one-half inches in diameter.

The interior or nest cavity was irregularly gourd-shaped and ten and one-eighth inches in depth, its greatest diameter, about four and one-half inches, being midway between the bottom and top. The walls were rough and seamy but this was not, perhaps, the fault of the birds, for the wood, although soft and easily worked, had evidently peeled off in long, stringy fibers.

The eggs lay on a deep mat of these shreds some of which were more than one inch in length.

Dr. C. Hart Merriam informed Major Bendire (1895) that “numerous nests were found in the Adirondacks in June, 1883. Most of them were in the flooded timber bordering the inlet of Seventh Lake, Fulton Chain. They varied from 5 to 12 feet in height above the water, and were in spruce, tamarack, pine, balsam, and cedar trees.” The nests of this woodpecker are not always so low down as those mentioned above; Col. John E. Thayer took a set, near Upton, Maine, on June 9, 1898, that was 20 feet from the ground in an old dead spruce stub; and the nests that Mr. Eaton (1914) found in the Adirondacks “were situated in tamaracks and spruces from 25 to 40 feet from the ground.”

Eggs.—Four seems to be the usual number of eggs laid by this woodpecker; I can find no record of either more or fewer in complete sets. The eggs are ovate, pure white, and only moderately glossy. The measurements of 43 eggs average 23.32 by 18.01 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure 25.5 by 18.2, 23.8 by 19.6, and 20.1 by 15.0 millimeters.

Young.—The period of incubation is said to be about 14 days, and it is shared by both sexes. Both parents feed and care for the young, even after the young leave the nest, as family parties are seen traveling about together in summer.

Plumages.—The nestlings are probably hatched naked and blind, as with other woodpeckers, but the juvenal plumage is acquired before the young leave the nest. In the juvenal plumage, the young male is similar to the adult male, but the yellow crown patch is smaller and less sharply defined; the upper parts are duller, brownish black instead of sooty black; the flanks are more heavily and more extensively banded, or spotted, with sepia instead of clear black; the white of the throat and breast is tinged with pale buffy. The juvenal female is similar to the young male, but the yellow crown patch is smaller, and the amount of yellow in it is very variable, sometimes only a few scattered feathers and sometimes a well-defined, clear patch. This plumage is worn at least through August and probably well into fall. The only molting adults I have seen were taken in August.

Food.—The feeding habits of the American three-toed woodpecker are almost identical with that of the Arctic three-toed. Prof. F. E. L. Beal (1911) says:

The largest item with both species is wood-boring coleopterous larvae. These amount to 64.25 percent with arcticus and 60.66 with americanus. Caterpillars, which in this case are mostly wood-boring species, amount to 12.88 and 14.45 percent for the two birds respectively. The total of wood-boring larvae, including both caterpillars and beetles, is, 77.13 percent for arcticus and 75.11 percent for americanus, or more than three-fourths of the food of both species. * * *

Fruit skins were found in only one stomach of americanus and mast in but one stomach of arcticus. Cambium was found in 10 stomachs of arcticus and 8 of americanus. This indicates that these birds do some pecking at the bark of living trees for other purposes than getting insects, but no complaints have yet been made, from which we infer that little or no damage is done; in fact the amount contained in the stomachs is not large a little less than 10 percent.

E. H. Forbush (1927) says that “Miss Caroline E. Hamilton of Greenfield, Massachusetts, observed in late September an individual that remained in a yard from daylight till dark, making the rounds of the trees and remaining longest on the fruit trees at the tiny holes attributed to Sapsuckers. She said that the bird seemed to find good food in these pits, and it may have been eating some of the cambium.” He writes further:

Mr. E. O. Grant, a faithful correspondent of Patten, Maine, travels over considerable region and north into Quebec, spending much time in the woods. On March 6, 1922, he wrote that the spruce budworm had killed about thirty percent of the spruce in that region and nearly all the fir, and that among the dead trees he saw hundreds of both the three-toed species, together with nearly equal numbers of Downy Woodpeckers and Hairy Woodpeckers. Food for the birds was very plentiful, as dark-beetles and spruce-borers were numerous. When an invasion of caterpillars strips coniferous trees and thus exposes their trunks and branches to the hot summer sun, dark-beetles attack and virtually girdle them with numerous tunnels beneath the bark; borers get in and sometimes most of the trees die. The woodpeckers, concentrating on these dead trees from all the forest around about, help to keep down the undue increase of bark-beetles and borers which, if they became too numerous, might attack some live trees.

Behavior.—Lucien M. Turner says in his unpublished notes: “The manner of flight of this species is less vigorous than in Picoides arcticus, yet differing in a manner that is difficult to describe; the unfolding of the wings when preparing to make the upward swoop is quicker, the stroke of the wing not so strong, and the plunge not so deep.”

Both species of three-toed woodpeckers are fearless birds, tame, and unsuspicious, probably because of their unfamiliarity with man and his hostile intentions; both are less active than most other woodpeckers, this species being particularly quiet in its movements and sedentary in its habits. Mr. Brewster (1898) writes:

My previous impression that Picoides americanus is a very much less active and restless bird than P. arcticus, was fully confirmed by the behavior of this male who was almost if not quite as slow and lethargic of movement as a sapsucker. He would spend minutes at a time clinging to one spot and when he moved up the tree trunks it was in a singularly slow, deliberate manner. Only when at or near the nest did he show real animation. * * *

I have rarely seen a nesting bird so alert and keen of hearing as was this Picoides. The sound of our voices or the slightest noise made by an oar or paddle would bring him at once to the entrance of the hole, even when we were forty or fifty yards away, and every few minutes when we were sitting perfectly still he would look out turning his head in every direction. He would not leave the hole, however, until we were within a few yards of the foot of the tree and after he had drummed awhile he would return to the stub while we were sitting near its base with the camera directed towards it. * * *

On returning to the stub the bird would usually strike against it about two feet below the hole and reaching it by two or three quick, upward hops would cling to its lower edge, alternately looking in and down at us. * * * He did not once enter the nest while we were near the tree, nor did he again attempt to mislead us by pecking at the bark, evidently realizing that this ruse had failed. When he flew back into the woods he always took one of two courses and along each he invariably alighted not only on the same trees but on the same spot on each tree. He had one particular place on the trunk of a large spruce where he would spend ten or fifteen minutes at a time pluming himself and watching us, before returning to the nest.

Major Bendire (1895) quotes the following from Dr. C. Hart Merriam:

We had just crossed the boundary line between Lewis and Herkimer counties, when Mr. Bagg called my attention to a “fresh hole,” about 8 feet from the ground, in a spruce tree near by. On approaching the tree a yellow crown appeared in the hole, showing that the male bird was “at home.” To prevent his escape I jumped toward the tree and introduced three fingers, which were immediately punctured in a manner so distasteful to their proprietor as to necessitate an immediate withdrawal and exchange for the muzzle of my friend’s gun. A handkerchief was next crowded into the hole, but was instantly riddled and driven out by a few blows from his terrible bill. It was then held loosely over the hole, and as the bird emerged I secured and killed him.

Wendell Taber had a good chance to observe one of these woodpeckers at short range in Grafton County, N. H., on May 31, 1937, about which he writes to me: “The bird was intent upon obtaining its food and ignored our presence. Most of the time the bird would fly to a tree and alight at a height of 20 to 25 feet, then work downward, hopping backward. Particularly it seemed to enjoy prodding around on the base of a tree at or within an inch or two of where tree and earth met. Drilling was barely audible, even when the bird was close-to. Both live and dead trees were attacked impartially. There was no strip act—the bark was not peeled off. There was a row of dead trees at the edge of the forest, which might well have been concentrated on, but which, actually, was attacked only in a haphazard manner along with trees alive in the forest. If anything, more attention was given to live trees.”

Voice.—The three-toed woodpecker is normally a rather silent bird. Its weak notes have been likened to the squealing notes of the yellow-bellied sapsucker, or the squeak of a small mammal; it also utters a variety of short notes like queep or quip. Horace W. Wright (1911) says: “The calls of the americanus male bird were not excited or loud. The single calls were somewhat like the robin’s call at dusk, and the rattling calls resembled a Hairy Woodpecker’s rattle, but were less loud and sharp.”

Mr. Brewster (1898) writes:

I had abundant opportunities for studying the drumming call today. It varied in duration from one to two seconds (never running over or under these limits) but was usually one and a half to one and three quarters seconds. The intervals between the calls were too irregular to be worth recording. The first three or four taps were slightly slower and more disconnected than the remaining ones but the general effect was that of a uniform roll similar to that made by the Downy and the Hairy Woodpecker, but less loud and penetrating. Still it carried well and under favorable conditions could be heard fully one quarter of a mile away. * * *

After drumming a dozen times or more he gave a long vocal call closely similar to the Kingfisher-like rattle of the Hairy Woodpecker.

Field marks.—The American three-toed woodpecker is the only woodpecker likely to be seen in the northern woods that has a black back transversely barred with white, white under parts banded with black on the flanks, and a black crown, with or without a yellow crown patch; the yellow patch is very prominent in the adult male and less so in the young birds of both sexes, but lacking in the adult female. In flight the “ladderback” is more conspicuous than when the bird is at rest, and the tail flashes white.

Winter.—Both species of three-toed woodpeckers are mainly resident throughout the year within their breeding ranges, as their normal food supply is as easily available in winter as in summer. Consequently few species of birds are less inclined to migrate than these woodpeckers. However, on rare occasions this woodpecker has been known to appear in winter somewhat south of its summer range. Probably these southward movements have been due to some shortage of food in its summer home, or an unusual supply of it further south, or, possibly, an unusually successful breeding season may have overcrowded the home range and caused an exodus.

DISTRIBUTION

Range.—Northern Europe, Asia, and North America, south through high mountainous regions to about latitude 35° N.; nonmigratory.

In North America the range of the three-toed woodpecker extends north to northern Alaska (Kowak River, Tanana, Beaver Creek, Fort Yukon, Circle, and Charlie Creek); northern Yukon (Forty Mile and probably Coal Creek); Mackenzie (Fort McPherson, Fort Goodhope, Fort Anderson, Fort Rae, and Fort Smith); northern Manitoba (Fort Du Brochet and Churchill); northern Ontario (Fort Albany); northern Quebec (Fort Chimo); and Labrador (Okak). East to Labrador (Okak and Nain); Newfoundland (South Exploit River); northeastern Maine (Presque Isle); and New Hampshire (Lake Umbagog and Mount Jefferson). South to northern New Hampshire (Mount Jefferson); northern New York (Long Lake and Moose River); probably northern Michigan (Isle Royal); northern Minnesota (Lake Itasca); northern New Mexico (Pecos Baldy and Chuska Mountains); Arizona (White Mountains, San Francisco Mountain, and Kaibab Plateau); east-central Nevada (Snake Mountains); and southwestern Oregon (Four-mile Lake). West to western Oregon (Four-mile Lake); Washington (Blue Mountains, probably Mount Rainier, and Mount Baker); British Columbia (Chilliwack, Clinton, Willow River, and Hazelton); and Alaska (Chichagof Island, Glacier, Copper River, Lake Clark, Mount McKinley, Nulato, and Kowak River).

Several races of this species have been recognized, three of which are included in the range above outlined. The American three-toed woodpecker (P. t. bacatus) ranges from Maine, Newfoundland, and Labrador west to northern Manitoba and southern Mackenzie; the Alpine three-toed woodpecker (P. t. dorsalis) is the Rocky Mountain form and is found in that region from Montana and Idaho south to the higher mountains of New Mexico and Arizona; the Alaska three-toed woodpecker (P. t. fasciatus) is found from Alaska, Yukon, and western Mackenzie south to Oregon, Idaho, and Montana.

While the three-toed woodpecker is not regularly migratory, it appears likely that during severe winters it withdraws somewhat from the northern parts of its range. At this season it is occasionally collected or observed short distances south of its normal range (Massachusetts, southern Wisconsin, southern Minnesota, and southern New Mexico).