214 



WOODPECKERS 



From Biological Survey, U. S. Dept. of 

 Agriculture. 



Fig. 280. Northern Pileated Woodpecker. 



Nest. In aspens and coniferous 

 trees, 40 to 50 feet from the ground. 

 Eggs : usually 3 to 5, white. 



Food. Wood-boring- beetles and 

 larvae which infest timbered tracts ; 

 also ants, wild grapes, berries, black 

 gum, dogwood, pokeweed, and service 

 berries, acorns, beechnuts, and chest- 

 nuts. 



The pileated woodpecker is not a 

 common bird in the western forests, 

 but is found in the Cascades and 

 Sierra Nevada, and when we were 

 camping on Mount Shasta we would 

 sometimes hear his slow deliberate 

 hammering and his ' bugle call ' at 

 sunrise. Though often heard he was seldom seen, but we were occa- 

 sionally fortunate enough to catch a glimpse of him with his con- 

 spicuous red crest winging his way with powerful bounding flight 

 through the forest and over the woodland meadows. 



Stubs, torn and excavated by his ' borings' were found quite com- 

 monly in the Transition belt. In many of the excavations I no- 

 ticed that while the main cut might cover a section six inches long 

 and three wide, at the bottom of the big excavation would be a small 

 round hole that your thumb could fill, looking as if the worm were 

 finally found there. One of our party who w T as fortunate enough to 

 see the pileated at work described the process in detail. The bird 

 began by flying hastily from tree to tree, from tree to stunip, and 

 stump to ground, finally going to work on a log on the ground. 

 After some preliminary pecking he began chiseling near a branch. 

 A steady pounding followed and the chips flew. The arc through 

 which his head was swung was so wide it seemed as if his neck must 

 break, but the bill came down straight, with the blow of a sledge- 

 hammer. After pounding awhile the bird stopped and pecked at 

 the bark till a big slab slid off, suggesting that he had been digging 

 deep holes, and then had worried off the surrounding bark. After 

 this followed a long period of quiet when his head moved around 

 busily without noise, as if he were probing the holes w r ith his tongue 

 and enjoying his meal. 



In the Yosemite National Park where shooting is forbidden the 

 pileated, instead of being one of the shyest of birds, is one of those 

 most in evidence, and as you drive by actually makes itself con- 

 spicuous by flying freely among the trees so near that you can see 

 his brilliant red head and the white spots on his wings, while he 

 utters his loud ringing chuck, chuck, rhuck, chuck, chuck, chuck, chuck. 



