Life histories of North American woodpeckersBent, Arthur Cleveland
Science
Life histories of North American woodpeckers
Bent, Arthur Cleveland
Birds -- North America; Woodpeckers -- North America
_Nesting._--The nesting habits of this woodpecker do not seem to differ
materially from those of the species elsewhere. Bendire (1895) quotes
W. G. Smith, as follows: “Williamson’s Sapsucker is a common summer
resident in Estes Park, Colorado, where it nests mostly in dead pines,
often within a few feet of the ground, and again as high as 70 feet
up. Full sets of fresh eggs are usually found here during the first
week in June. The male appears to me to do most of the incubating, and
hereabouts it is most often found at altitudes between 7,000 and 8,000
feet, but I have also taken it at much higher ones, where it nests
somewhat later.”
Mr. Skinner says in his notes: “On June 14, 1914, I discovered the nest
of a pair of Williamson sapsuckers in the gulch beside the trail to
Snow Pass at the beginning of the last ascent. The nest was in an aspen
trunk about 6 inches in diameter. The opening to the nest was 1½ inches
in diameter and located 5 feet above ground. On June 30, 1915, the nest
was in the same tree, but 2 feet above the 1914 nest and in a fresh
opening.”
_Eggs._--The eggs of Natalie’s sapsucker do not differ materially from
those of the other race of the species. The measurements of 51 eggs
average 23.60 by 17.41 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes
measure =26.2= by 17.9, 24.2 by =19.4=, =21.5= by 17.0, and 22.0 by
=16.0= millimeters.
_Young._--Mr. Skinner says in his notes that the young “seem to arrive
irregularly between June 10 and July 1. I have seen young Williamson’s
sapsuckers hunting by themselves before August 10. In the nest recorded
above there were five young on June 14, 1914, and both parents were
kept constantly busy bringing food, and frequently came so fast that
one parent had to wait for the other to leave the nest. In feeding the
young the adults disappeared completely into the nest cavity and came
out head first. In 1915 there were five more young on June 30 and they
were still there on July 10. When I visited them on June 30, the male
was in the nest, and it required about five raps on the tree trunk to
dislodge him, although he came to the opening and looked out at each
rap.”
_Food._--The feeding habits of Natalie’s sapsucker are apparently
similar to those of the species elsewhere, but Mr. Skinner tells me
he has “seen it drumming on firs for insects, picking insects from a
crotch of a lodgepole pine and catching spruce-budworm moths from fir
foliage.”
_Behavior._--The feeding and other habits of Natalie’s sapsucker seems
to be similar to those of the other subspecies, but Bendire (1895)
quotes the following notes from Denis Gale, about its behavior around
the nest, which are worth repeating here:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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