Life histories of North American woodpeckers — John Shaqi
Life histories of North American woodpeckersBent, Arthur Cleveland
Science
Life histories of North American woodpeckers
Bent, Arthur Cleveland
Birds -- North America; Woodpeckers -- North America
In the Lower Austral Zone of the South Atlantic and Gulf States we find
this small race of the hairy woodpecker. In addition to being decidedly
smaller than its northern relative, the white of the under parts is
less pure, and the white markings of the upper parts are somewhat
smaller.
Arthur H. Howell (1932) says of its haunts in Florida: “The southern
hairy woodpecker, though not particularly shy, prefers the wilder
sections for its home. It occurs in a variety of situations--the open
pine forests, oak hammocks, and the hardwoods of the deep river swamps.
The birds are of a rather solitary disposition, and rarely is more than
a single bird or a pair found near together.”
_Nesting._--Mr. Howell (1932) says that “the nests are located 12 to 45
feet from the ground in holes excavated in dead oaks or willow stubs,
or in cypresses growing on the edge of a swamp.” S. A. Grimes (1932)
says: “A nest thirty feet up in a live cypress near Eastport [Florida]
held three eggs on April 13. Two well feathered young were found in
a hole fifteen feet up in a dead sweet gum in southern Duval County
on May 13. A nest eight feet up in a pine stub in northern St. Johns
County contained three heavily incubated eggs on May 11.”
Arthur T. Wayne (1910) says that in South Carolina “the nest is very
hard to find; indeed I have found but six nests, two which contained
eggs, and four which contained young. I have known this species to
excavate a hole and raise a brood in a limb of a living live oak tree,
but it generally excavates its hole in a dead tree and at a great
height. A set of three fresh eggs was taken April 7, 1898, from a hole
40 feet from the ground in a dead pine. This hole was 14 inches deep.
The young remain in the hole for more than a month after they are
hatched.”
Harold H. Bailey (1913) says that in Virginia “dead stubs of gum and
poplar treetops seem to be their favorite location for a nesting site,
varying from 25 to 60 feet up, the cavity from eight to twelve inches
deep. They are one of our earliest breeding birds, the drilling of the
nesting cavity beginning the last week in March, and by April 10th to
15th finds a full complement or set of eggs, numbering from four to
six.”
J. G. Suthard writes to me of a nest he found near Madisonville, Ky.
The cavity was “excavated in a dead crab apple stub in open woodland.
Only the female was observed excavating the hole and caring for the
eggs, which proved to be infertile. No male was ever observed near the
nesting stub, though it was carefully observed.” M. G. Vaiden tells me
of a nest 9 feet up in a chinaberry tree in a yard at Rosedale, Miss.,
and another that was 23 feet up in a pecan tree and 3 feet out in a
dead snag.
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