Lewis Woodpeckers are rather wary, and if one starts out to secure a specimen, he is surprised to note how the birds manage to edge off while still out of range, and to fly away across the tree-tops rather than trust themselves to the lower levels. It is well worth one’s while to examine a specimen, because of the exceptional character of the bird’s plumage. The hoary ash of the collar contrasts strikingly with the glossy green of the upperparts, while the rich crimson, mingled with ashy, below, serves to emphasize the extraordinary hair-like character of the feathers themselves. If it had been a Sapsucker, now, or a Harris, we could readily understand how the abdominal plumage might have been teased to rags thru constant friction with rough bark; but this lazy Jack-of-all-trades, who is more flycatcher than true woodpecker, how did he get his under-plumage so fearfully mussed?
For all the Black Woodpecker keeps largely to the tops of trees, it is not averse to ground-meats, and where unmolested, will descend to feed with Cousin Flicker upon crickets, geotic beetles, or fallen acorns. Grasshoppers are a favorite food, and during the season of their greatest abundance the bird requires little else. Service-berries are a staple in season, wild strawberries are not often neglected, and the bird has been known to filch a cherry now and then. Indeed, it is noteworthy that in certain fruit-growing sections, such as the Yakima Valley, Black Woodpeckers have increased in numbers of late. It must not be hastily concluded on this account that the Woodpecker is a menace to the orchard. He earns what he eats. Orchards attract insects, and insects attract birds. Which will you have, no birds, more insects, and so, eventually, no fruit? or more birds, fewer insects, and enough fruit for all?
LEWIS WOODPECKER.
The occurrence of the Black Woodpecker west of the Cascades is subject to little-understood fluctuations. One year the birds will abound in a certain section, while the year following none are seen. Whether this is because the local food supply has become exhausted with a season’s foraging, or whether the birds are simply whimsical in choice, we do not know. Doubtless, in any event, the rapid opening up of new territory, thru the cutting and partial burning of timber, has provided a field of opportunity too large for the species to fully occupy. With such wealth before them the early colonists may naturally have become a little saucy.
Taken in Whatcom County. Photo by the Author.
AN OLD BURN SUCH AS LEWIS WOODPECKERS DELIGHT IN.
No. 177.
YELLOW-SHAFTED FLICKER.
A. O. U. No. 412a. Colaptes auratus luteus Bangs.
Synonyms.—Flicker. Northern Flicker. Golden-winged Woodpecker. Yellow-hammer. High-hole. High-holder. Pigeon Woodpecker. Wake-up.
Description.—Adult male: Top of head and cervix ashy gray, with a vinaceous tinge on forehead; a bright scarlet band on the back of the neck; back, scapulars, and wings vinaceous gray with conspicuous black bars, brace-shaped, crescentic or various; primaries plain dusky on exposed webs; lining of the wing and shafts of the wing-quills yellow; rump broadly white; upper tail-coverts white, black-barred in broad, “herring-bone” pattern; tail double-pointed, black, and with black shafts on exposed upper surface; feathers sharply acuminate; tail below, golden-yellow and with yellow shafts, save on black tips; chin, sides of head, and throat vinaceous, enclosing two broad, black, malar stripes, or moustaches; a broad, black, pectoral crescent; remaining underparts white with heavy vinaceous shading on breast and sides, everywhere marked with sharply defined and handsome round, or cordate, spots of black. Bill and feet dark plumbeous. Adult female: Similar, but without black moustache. Sexes about equal in size. Length 12.00-12.75 (304.8-323.9); av. of thirteen specimens: wing 6.13 (155.7); tail 4.34 (110.2); bill 1.34 (34).
Recognition Marks.—Size not comparable to that of any better known bird; scarlet nuchal band; yellow “flickerings” in flight; pectoral crescent; white rump; black-spotted breast, etc.
Nesting.—Does not breed in Washington. Nest: an excavation in a tree or stump, usually made by the bird, at moderate heights; unlined, save by chips. Eggs: 4-10, usually 7 or 8, glossy white. Av. size, 1.09 × .85 (27.7 × 21.6).
General Range.—Northern and eastern North America, west to the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains and Alaska. Occasional on the Pacific slope from California northward. Accidental in Europe.
Range in Washington.—Casual during migrations—a straggler from Alaska.
Authorities.—Dawson, Auk, Vol. XXV., Oct. 1908, p. 484.
Specimens.—Prov. E.
The true Yellow-shafted Flicker, the familiar bird of the Eastern States, is occasionally taken as a straggler during the fall migrations. Mr. D. E. Brown took a typical specimen at Glacier, in 1904, and Mr. Victor Savings, of Blaine, has shot one and seen several others. A specimen in Mr. Rathbun’s collection was taken by Mr. Matt. H. Gormley, on Orcas Island, October 15, 1903. The bird is a male and is typical save for the faintest possible tinge of salmon in the yellow, which marks him as a border-line specimen, probably a British Columbian bird which did not deflect eastward sufficiently in the autumn retreat.