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 character of the head markings in the female is
suggestive again of _aculeata_, the red area being usually
more nearly square, as in that form, rather than shorter
than wide, as in _bairdi_. The white frontal band averages
slightly narrower than in _bairdi_, an approach toward the
condition in _angustifrons_, of the Cape San Lucas region.
The yellowish white (more dilutely yellow than in _bairdi_)
U-mark on the lower throat in both sexes averages very much
narrower in our specimens of _martirensis_ than in a large
series of _bairdi_ usually only about half the width of the
former as in the latter. This we are not quite confident of
as a real character, in that there is a chance that “make”
of specimen (whether or not the skin of the throat was
stretched) affects the width of the white band. * * *
In character of the markings on the feathers of the breast
there is no departure from the condition in _bairdi_. The
upper breast is broadly and solidly black, the black band
not penetrated posteriorly with white streaks to such an
extent as in _aculeata_ and _angustifrons_.
The range is given as, “so far as now known, only parts of the Sierra
San Pedro Martir, in northern Lower California, between latitudes
30° and 31°30″; altitude 5,800 to 7,200 feet; life-zone mainly Upper
Sonoran (live-oak association), but also Transition locally or
sporadically.”
The eggs are similar to those of other races of the species. The
measurements of 12 eggs average 26.19 by 18.35 millimeters; the eggs
showing the four extremes measure =25.1= by =19.4=, =19.0= by 18.5, and
22.8 by =16.8= millimeters.
ASYNDESMUS LEWIS (Gray)
LEWIS’S WOODPECKER
PLATE 29
HABITS
My first impression of this curious and interesting woodpecker was of
a large, black bird that looked more like a crow than a woodpecker and
that flew with the strong, steady flight of a crow or a jay, with
none of the undulations common to so many woodpeckers. I made the same
comment the second time I saw it, and am interested to see that the
same impressions were made on many others.
It is essentially a bird of the more open country and among scattered
large trees, rather than of the heavily forested regions. S. F. Rathbun
writes to me of its haunts in western Washington: “In this section of
the State are many tracts of land commonly known as ‘old burns.’ At
one time all were forested, then later they were swept by fire and in
some instances more than once; but even now, on many, still stand the
scarred and blackened trunks of what formerly were large, tall trees;
and it is in or about these unattractive places that this woodpecker is
more apt to be found, although by no means is it restricted to them.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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