White-headed woodpecker
Picoides albolarvatus
L 7¾″
Habitat: Open ponderosa pine forest from Washington to central California is the primary habitat of the white-headed woodpecker, but it also occurs in sugar pine, Jeffrey pine, and red and white fir forests (Grinnell and Miller 1944).
Nest: This woodpecker seems to prefer dead pines, but nests have also been found in live and dead fir, oak, and aspen. White-headed woodpeckers usually excavate a new nest cavity every year and often excavate several holes before selecting one to nest in (Bent 1939). Average nest height is 8 feet above ground.
Food: White-headed woodpeckers feed primarily on pine seeds during the winter and early spring, and on insects during the summer. Tevis (1953) determined that 60 percent of the annual diet was pine seeds and 40 percent was insects. Ants made up half of the insect food; other insects taken were woodboring beetles, spiders, and fly larvae (Beal 1911, Grinnell and Storer 1924, Ligon 1973).