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 chief difference between adult male and female ivorybills lies in
the crest, which in the male is a brilliant scarlet, not including the
uppermost feathers, which are black, like the top of the head, while
the somewhat recurved crest of the female is entirely black. Females
average somewhat larger than males in most of their measurements,
except those of bill and feet, as the following figures (length in
millimeters) given by Ridgway (1914) for 15 males and 11 females
indicate:
ADULT MALES: Skins, 420-493 (454); wing, 240-263 (255.8);
tail, 147-160.5 (154.4); culmen, 63-72.5 (68.2); tarsus,
42.5-46 (44.2); outer anterior toe, 30-34 (32.1).
ADULT FEMALES: Skins, 452-488 (471); wing, 240-262 (256.4);
tail, 151-166 (159.5); culmen, 61-67.5 (64.3); tarsus,
40.5-44 (42.6); outer anterior toe, 30-33.5 (31.7).
In both sexes the general color is a glossy blue-black, with the tail
and primaries duller or with the gloss less distinct. A narrow stripe
on each side of the neck, starting below the eye and continuing down
to the folded secondaries, is conspicuously white, as are also the
secondaries, all but five or six of the outermost primaries, and the
under wing coverts. The white nasal plumes and anterior edges of the
lores more or less match the ivory-white bill and help to emphasize its
size. The iris is pale, clear lemon-yellow in both sexes, and the tarsi
and toes are light gray.
_Food._--Audubon (1842) mentions grapes, persimmons, and hackberries as
food of the ivorybills in addition to beetles, larvae, and large grubs.
McIlhenny, in his communication to Bendire (1895), mentions their
feeding on acorns, but Maurice Thompson (1885) asserts that “it is
only woodpeckers which eat insects and larvae (dug out of rotten wood)
exclusively.” Allen and Kellogg (1937) report:
We were never able to follow a bird continuously through
the forest of either Louisiana or Florida for more than
an hour before it would make a long flight and we would
be unable to find it again. Ordinarily upon leaving the
nest-tree or its immediate environs the bird would fly at
least a hundred yards before stopping. Then it would feed
for from a few minutes to as long as half an hour on a dead
tree or dead branch before making a short flight to another
tree. It might make a dozen such short flights and then,
without any warning and for no apparent reason, it would
start off on a long flight through the forest that would
take it entirely out of sight.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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