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Exploring the beautiful nature of California


California Nature:  Woodpeckers


Woodpeckers are small to medium sized birds with chisel like beaks, short legs, stiff tails and long tongues used for capturing insects. Some species have feet with two toes pointing forward, and two backward, while several species have only three toes. Many woodpeckers have the habit of tapping noisily on tree trunks with their beaks. There are 218 species world wide, 26 North American species, and 17 Californian species.

Nearly as large as a crow, the Pileated Woodpecker is the largest woodpecker in most of North America. Its loud ringing calls and huge, rectangular excavations in dead trees announce its presence in forests across the continent. The Pileated Woodpecker digs characteristically rectangular holes in trees to find ants. These excavations can be so broad and deep that they can cause small trees to break in half. The feeding excavations of a Pileated Woodpecker are so extensive that they often attract other birds. Other woodpeckers, as well as House Wrens, may come and feed there. A Pileated Woodpecker pair stays together on its territory all year round. It will defend the territory in all seasons, but will tolerate floaters during the winter.
Lewis's woodpecker is named after the explorer lewis and Clark One of the larger species of American woodpeckers, Lewis's Woodpecker can be as large as 10 to 11 inches in length. It is mainly reddish-breasted, blackish-green in color with a black rump. It has a gray collar and upper breast, with a pinkish belly, and a red face. Its dark plumage sets it apart from all other North American woodpeckers. The wings are much broader than those of other woodpeckers, and it flies at a much more sluggish pace with slow, but even flaps similar to those of a crow.

Lewis's Woodpecker is locally common, dwelling mostly in open pine woodlands, and other areas with scattered trees. Unlike other American woodpeckers, it enjoys sitting in the open as opposed to sitting in heavy tree cover. It ranges mostly in the western to central United States, but can winter as far south as the US border with Mexico and summer as far north as Canada.

The Lewis’s Woodpecker was named for Meriwether Lewis, one of the explorers who surveyed the areas bought by the USA in the Louisiana Purchase. It seldom excavates wood for boring insects. Instead, it gleans insects from the tree surface, or most commonly, flycatches.
The Downy Woodpecker may be the most familiar woodpecker in North America. It occurs throughout North America where woodlands are found, being absent only from tundra regions of Canada and Alaska, and from southern Texas. The downy woodpecker is virtually identical to the Hairy Woodpecker, but is much smaller and with a much shorter bill.

Only 15 to 17 cm long, the Downy Woodpecker is very small compared to most North American woodpeckers. Its contrasting black and white plumage gives it a formal tuxedo like appearance. The adult male sports a red patch on the back of his head. The short, straight, chisel-like bill of the downy woodpecker is especially suited for probing for insects and insect larvae, and for chipping a cavity for a nest site.

This bird prefers forest ecosystems that are boreal, temperate, subtropical, or tropical, though it has been known to reside in rural and urban areas. The Downy Woodpecker uses sources of food that larger woodpeckers cannot, such as the insect fauna on weed stems.
red headed woodpeckers are common woodpeckers in California nature Red-headed Woodpeckers are medium-sized woodpeckers with black upperparts and tail, and white underparts and rump. The head, throat, and upper breast are dark red. Wings are black with large white patches. Bill, legs and feet are black. These birds fly to catch insects in the air or on the ground, forage on trees or gather and store nuts. Red-headed woodpeckers are omnivorous, eating insects, seeds, fruits, berries, nuts, and occasionally even the eggs of other birds. About two thirds of their diet is made up of plants.

Red headed woodpeckers often nest in a cavity in a dead tree, utility pole, or a dead part of a tree that is between 8 and 80 feet above the ground. They lay four to seven eggs in early May which are incubated for two weeks. Two broods can be raised in a single nesting season.

The red-headed woodpecker is listed as a vulnerable species in Canada and as a threatened species in some states in the US. The species has declined in numbers due to habitat loss caused by harvesting of snags, agricultural development, channeling of rivers, a decline in farming resulting to regeneration of eastern forests, monoculture crops, the loss of small orchards, and treatment of telephone poles with creosote.
The Northern Flicker is a bird of open areas and forest edges wherever open ground is available. This species is also known as the Common Flicker and the Yellow-shafted Flicker. Unlike most species of woodpeckers, Flickers forage mostly on the ground, consuming ants, termites, caterpillars, crickets, grasshoppers, other insects, spiders, berries, seeds, and nuts. The Flicker is about 13 inches long with a wingspan of 18 to 21 inches. Weights range from 4 to 6 ounces. Flickers have a gray crown with a prominent red chevron on the back of the head. The yellow shafts of the feathers and its habit of flicking its bill give the Yellow-shafted Flicker its name. The yellow shafts of the primary flight feathers is noticeable in this photo. The spectacular underside of the Yellow-shafted Flicker makes it easy to see how this bird got its name.

Acorn Woodpeckers are medium-sized, clown-faced woodpecker with red crown, glossy black-and-white head, and glaring white eyes. With a black patch around base of bill the acorn woodpecker's body is black with white rump and belly, and one or more red- or yellow-tipped throat feathers may be present. Wings are black with white patches. Acorn Woodpeckers are year-round residents from southern Oregon south through California, and in Arizona, New Mexico, and western Texas. These woodpeckers have a preferred habitat that includes open oak and pine-oak forests.
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