Life histories of North American woodpeckersBent, Arthur Cleveland
Science
Life histories of North American woodpeckers
Bent, Arthur Cleveland
Birds -- North America; Woodpeckers -- North America
Some writers have said that only one brood is raised in a season, and
others that two broods are raised only in the southern part of the
breeding range. But Mr. DuBois reports two broods in Minnesota; and Mr.
Potter one brood one season and two broods the next season for his pair
in New Jersey.
_Plumages._--The young are hatched naked and blind, but they acquire
the juvenal plumage before they leave the nest. The sexes are alike
in all plumages, and the juvenal plumage is quite unlike that of the
adult. In the juvenal plumage, the head, neck, and upper chest are
brownish gray, spotted above and streaked below with dusky; the back
is black but not glossy as in the adult; the wings are as in the
adult, except that the secondaries and tertials are white but more
or less patterned or barred with black, chiefly near the tips, and
the primaries are edged with buffy white on the outer webs; the under
parts below the chest are dull white, clouded with brownish gray and
more or less streaked with dusky, chiefly on the sides and flanks.
This plumage is usually worn in its purity through July and August and
sometimes into October, though sometimes a few red feathers are seen in
the head; I have seen two or three red feathers in the head as early
as June 29 and a bird not much farther advanced on December 1. But
usually the complete molt into the adult plumage begins in September
and lasts through winter; the change begins on the head and back in
fall, but the wings are not usually molted until April, and even then
some of the juvenal secondaries may be retained. Most young birds are
in practically adult plumage before May.
Adults have a complete postnuptial molt in August and September; they
may have a partial molt in spring, but I have not seen it. Some highly
plumaged birds, probably old birds and mostly from western localities,
have the abdomen tinged with red.
_Food._--Much has been written on the food habits of the red-headed
woodpecker, a most resourceful feeder on a greatly varied diet. Prof.
F. E. L. Beal (1895) makes the following report on the contents of 101
stomachs, collected throughout the year in various parts of the country:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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