Cavity-Nesting Birds of North American Forests: Agriculture Handbook 511Scott, Virgil E.
Science
Cavity-Nesting Birds of North American Forests: Agriculture Handbook 511
Scott, Virgil E.
Birds -- Nests; Birds -- North America; Cavity-nesting birds -- North America; Forest birds -- North America
Food: The diet of the golden-fronted woodpecker consists of both insects
and vegetable matter. Grasshoppers make up more than half of the animal
matter and other insects include beetles and ants (Pearson 1936, Bent
1939). Vegetable matter consumed consists of corn, acorns, wild fruits,
and berries (Bent 1939).
Gila woodpecker
_Melanerpes uropygialis_
L 8¼″
[Illustration]
Habitat: This woodpecker is found on desert mesas in association with
creosote bush, mesquite, and saguaro cactus from central Arizona to
edges of adjacent states. It is also common in river bottoms and in
foothill canyons among cottonwoods, willows, and sycamores.
Nest: The Gila woodpecker excavates holes in saguaro cacti for nests.
Cottonwoods, willows, and mesquites are also used at higher elevations
(Bent 1939, Ligon 1961).
Food: The diet of the Gila woodpecker consists of ants, beetles,
grasshoppers, fruits from saguaro cactus, and mistletoe berries (Bent
1939). This woodpecker has been reported to remove eggs from the nests
of various songbirds.
Red-headed woodpecker
_Melanerpes erythrocephalus_
L 7½″
[Illustration]
Habitat: Red-headed woodpeckers prefer to nest and roost in open areas.
Farmyards, field edges, and timber stands that have been treated with
herbicides or burned are preferred habitats. Redheads are attracted to
areas with many dead snags and lush herbaceous ground cover, but not to
woods with closed canopies. They are found throughout the East and along
wooded streams of the prairie to eastern Colorado and Wyoming.
Competition for nesting space is often intensive where starlings are
abundant (Bailey and Niedrach 1965).
Nest: Red-headed woodpeckers most commonly excavate holes in the trunks
of dead trees. Holes are excavated from 24 to 65 feet above the ground
and the 1.8-inch diameter entrance hole often faces south or west
(Reller 1972). These woodpeckers may excavate new holes each year, or
use old nest sites.
Food: Red-headed woodpeckers consume about half animal matter (mostly
insects) and half vegetable matter. Occasionally the eggs or the young
of other birds are destroyed. Although a wide variety of vegetable
matter is consumed, acorns from pin oak comprise a large portion of the
winter diet. Nuts are stored whole or in pieces in cracks and crevices
in bark, and in cavities which are sealed with bits of bark when full.
These birds also store insects (especially grasshoppers) along with
acorns in cavities and crevices (Kilham 1963, Bent 1939).
Acorn woodpecker
_Melanerpes formicivorus_
L 8″
[Illustration]
Habitat: The acorn woodpecker is a common resident of mixed oak-pine
woodland and adjacent open grassland from Oregon along the Pacific Coast
to the southwestern United States.
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