CSERC Blogger

There is something truly special about seeing a woodpecker when you are out in the woods. Whenever I encounter one I can’t help but announce their presence to whoever happens to be listening, and I stop what I am doing to enjoy watching them for however long I can.
Actually, there are many different species of woodpeckers found in our region, with twelve species listed on the Central Sierra Audubon’s “Birds of Tuolumne County” page!
This blog describes some of the distinctive and interesting traits of a few of the well-known species of woodpeckers that you might run into in the woods. Here they are, in no particular order:

 
1. Acorn Woodpecker

This robin-sized charismatic and relatively common type of woodpecker is found throughout the oak forests in the western United States. Recognizable by their “clown face” (eyes surrounded with black), they are well known for their ability to collect and store acorns. Families of acorn woodpeckers (composed of up to three breeding females and seven breeding males), work together to create “graneries” in trees, wooden fences, and telephone poles, drilling holes to fit thousands of acorns for the upcoming winter consumption.

 

 
Also interesting to note, is that young juvenile woodpeckers stay with their parents for several years helping to raise more young.

 

 

 
2. Black-backed Woodpecker
These woodpeckers are also around the size of a robin, and are distinguished by an all-black back, black and white bars on their flanks, and the males have a bright yellow-crowned head (the females have black heads). Their preferred habitat are wooded areas that have recently burned, as their diet consists largely of wood-boring beetles and grubs that are plentiful in these locations.

 
3. White-headed woodpecker

  These woodpeckers have the distinction of being the only North American bird species with a white head and black body! Males have a red crown, while the females have an all-white head, and these woodpeckers are also the around the size of a robin. Their preferred diet consists of almost entirely of pine cone seeds, which they are skilled at cracking open the shells of to get to.

 
4. Northern Flicker

 When I see a northern flicker in the woods, usually its because I have startled it from the ground, and all I can see of it is its rear end as it flies away from me- the wings a reddish brown color, the rump white, and a flight pattern that seems to fit the name “flicker”.

 


 
The flicker prefers to forage on the ground as it finds ants for nourishment by scratching at the ground with their claws and lapping them up with their barbed tongues. They are between the size of a robin and a crow, and have a black spotted belly and a black striped back, as well as reddish-brown patches on the underside of their wings.

 

 

 
5. Pileated Woodpecker

 The pileated woodpecker is a well-known image to many Americans, as it was the source of inspiration for the well-known animation character, Woody Woodpecker. It is actually the largest of the common North American woodpecker species, and what stands out to me besides their size when identifying them is their long “zebra striped” head and neck, and the red crown which stands up in the back like a punk rock haircut.


 
Their favorite food is carpenter ants which they get to by (very loudly) drilling large rectangular holes into trees, which are in turn utilized by many other bird species for accessing other yummy insects. They prefer large older trees and snags for nesting and roosting, and have struggled to make a comeback after the deforestation of much of their habitat over the last century.

 

 

 
Is there a type of woodpecker you were hoping I would describe but somehow missed? Do you have a good woodpecker story the world needs to here? Share it with us here or on CSERC’s Facebook page!

 
-Julia Stephens, CSERC Associate