Western Bird Guide: Birds of the Rockies and West to the Pacific

by Charles K. Reed

LEWIS WOODPECKER.

408. Asyndesmus lewisi. 10½ inches.

An oddly colored species, with a crimson red face, under parts streaked with crimson and white, a gray breast, and upper parts a glossy greenish black. They are more common in the mountain ranges among the tall pines from the eastern Rockies to the Pacific coast range, breeding high up in the trees. Their food consisting of insect life mostly, and acorns, which they gather and store away for future use. Four to eight eggs are pure white (1.05 × .80).