Life histories of North American woodpeckersBent, Arthur Cleveland
Science
Life histories of North American woodpeckers
Bent, Arthur Cleveland
Birds -- North America; Woodpeckers -- North America
The range of the white-headed woodpecker extends =north= to Washington
(Methow River and probably Fort Colville); and northern Idaho (Fort
Sherman). =East= to western Idaho (Fort Sherman and Grangeville);
eastern Oregon (Hurricane Creek, Powder River Mountains, Anthony, and
Camp Harney); western Nevada (Carson); and eastern California (Bijou,
Yosemite Valley, Pyramid Peak, San Bernardino Mountains, and Cuyamaca
Mountains). =South= to southern California (Cuyamaca Mountains and
Mount Pinos). =West= to the western slopes of the Sierra Nevadas,
Calif. (Mount Pinos, Bear Valley, Fyffe, Butte Lake, and Mount Shasta);
western Oregon (Pinehurst, Foley Creek, and The Dalles); and western
Washington (Kalama, Cle Elum, and Methow River).
The species has been separated into two subspecies, the northern
white-headed woodpecker (_Dryobates a. albolarvatus_), occupying most
of the range south to the southern end of the Sierra Nevadas, and the
southern white-headed woodpecker (_D. a. gravirostris_), found in the
mountain ranges of southern California.
_Casual records._--A specimen collected near Point Bonita, Marin
County, Calif., on July 20, 1932, is the only coastal record in that
State. There is, however, an old record for Grays Harbor, Wash.
(previous to 1892), which cannot now be confirmed.
In the Provincial Museum at Victoria, British Columbia, there is an
unlabeled specimen said to have been collected in the Similkameen
Valley. Two have been collected at Okanagan, British Columbia, one on
December 20, 1911, and the other on January 24, 1914.
_Egg dates._--California: 53 records, April 24 to June 16; 27 records,
May 22 to June 7, indicating the height of the season.
DRYOBATES ALBOLARVATUS GRAVIROSTRIS (Grinnell)
SOUTHERN WHITE-HEADED WOODPECKER
HABITS
Dr. Joseph Grinnell (1902), in describing and naming the white-headed
woodpecker of the mountain ranges of southern California, gave as its
characters: “Similar to _Xenopicus albolarvatus_ but bill much heavier,
and size in general slightly greater.” He named it as a distinct
species, on the theory that “the material at hand does not justify
subspecific treatment of these two forms. Geographical continuity of
ranges possibly exists; but it seems quite as likely that there is a
broad hiatus in the vicinity of Tehachapi Pass, whence I can find no
record of the white-headed woodpecker.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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