Nest: Ladder-backed woodpecker nests are located in a variety of trees such as mesquite, screw bean, palo verde, hackberry, china tree, willow, cottonwood, walnut and oak, usually from 2 to 30 feet above ground. Saguaro cactus, yucca stalks, and branches are sometimes used for nests, as are telephone poles and fence posts (Bent 1939, Phillips et al. 1964).
Food: Insects, especially larvae of wood-boring beetles, caterpillars, and ants, are major food items. The ladder-backed woodpecker also has been reported to eat the ripe fruit of saguaro cactus (Bent 1939).
Nuttall’s woodpecker
Picoides nuttallii
L 6¾″
Habitat: This western woodpecker is an inhabitant of oak woodlands, riparian woods, and chapparal west of the Sierras in California.
Nest: From a literature survey and personal observations, Miller and Bock (1972) summarized the following nest-tree data for 57 nests: 23 percent in oak, 19 percent in willow, 18 percent in sycamore, 16 percent in cottonwood, and 12 percent in alder. Cavities were excavated in dead limbs and trunks of trees, from 3 to 45 feet above ground.
Food: About 80 percent of the diet of Nuttall’s woodpecker is insects, including 28 percent beetles, 15 percent hemipterans, 14 percent lepidopteran larvae, and 8 percent ants (Beal 1911). Most of the insects are gleaned from trunk and limb surfaces or captured on the wing (Short 1971). Wild fruits, poison oak seeds, and occasional acorns make up the vegetable portion of the diet. Nuttall’s woodpeckers in California have been known to take almonds, occasionally robbing the caches of Lewis’ woodpeckers (Emlen 1937, Bock 1970).