RED-SHAFTED FLICKER 289 



Others have noted the bank-nesting habit of this flicker, whicli 

 seems to be rather common. Most of the nests, however, are exca- 

 vated in trees or stnbs, at heights varying from ground level to 100 

 feet above the ground. We found them nesting connnonly in the 

 Huachuca Mountains, Ariz., in the sycamores in the canyons and in 

 the tall pines near the summits at 9,000 feet. A large majority of the 

 nests will be found between 8 and 25 feet above the ground. Dawson 

 (1!):l>3) mentions a nest "in a stump only two feet high, and its eggs 

 rested virtually upon the ground." Walter P. Taylor (1912) men- 

 tions a nest in a cavity in a haystack, in the desert regions of Hum- 

 boldt County, Nev., where there were practically no trees. This 

 flicker also nests frequently in telegraph and other poles, also far 

 too often in buildings, where it drills a hole through the outer wall 

 and lays its eggs on a beam or other flat surface, accumulating 

 enough chips to keep the eggs from rolling. 



Florence A. Merriam Bailey (1896) watched a red-shafted flicker 

 excavating its nest-hole, of which she says: "The flicker hung with 

 claws planted in the hole, and with its tail braced at an angle under 

 it, leaned forward to excavate. Using its feet as a pivot, it grad- 

 ually swamg in farther and farther; and w^hen it had gone so far 

 that it had to reach back to throw out its chips, it swung in and out 

 on its feet like an automatic toy wound up for the performance. 

 When it had been building for a week, only the tip of its tail pro- 

 truded from the nest hole as it worked." 



Mrs, Irene G. Wheelock (1904) says: "The site having been chosen, 

 the male clings to the surface and marks with his bill a more or less 

 regular circle in a series of dots, then begins excavating inside this 

 area, using his bill, not with a sidewise twist, as do many of the 

 woodpecker family, but striking downwards and prjdng off the chips 

 as with a pickaxe. When his mate has rested and wishes to share 

 in the labor, she calls from a near-by tree and he instantly quits his 

 task." 



Dr. and Mrs. Grinuell (Grinnell, Dixon, and Linsdale, 1930) made 

 the following observations on this species, while excavating its nest- 

 hole : 



The bird entered the hole, entirely out of view, at 8 : 54, reappeared from 

 within at 9:05, when it rested a minute with the head partly out; then it 

 proceeded to bring out from within load after load of chips, which showered 

 down as if of fine, almost sawdust-like size. Forty-five such loads were counted 

 lo 9 : 10, delivered with striking regularity. Twelve loads delivered were 

 counted in one sixty-second period. At 9 : 10 the bird disappeared again till 

 9 : 15, when its head appeared and twenty-seven loads were tlippod out in three 

 minutes ; then after a long pause, till 9 : 19, the other flicker arrived, with 

 scythe-whetting note, and both birds flew off. One of them returned at 9 : 29, 

 flipped out several loads of chips and left at 9:31. Digging in this particular 

 stump must have been easy and hence rapid. 



