WOODPECKERS: Family Picidae [ 371 ] 



DISTRIBUTION. General: From southeastern British Columbia and southern Alberta 

 east to Great Plains and south to southern California and Mexico. In Oregon: 

 Permanent resident of all of eastern Oregon, including eastern slope of Cascades, 

 and of Jackson and Josephine Counties of Rogue River Valley. 



NEWBERRY (1857) first listed the Red-shafted Flicker (Plate 68) from the 

 territory now assigned to it, and Bendire (1877) collected the first set of 

 eggs at Camp Harney in 1875. Since then many writers have mentioned 

 the bird. It is common even in the treeless areas of eastern Oregon, where 

 it nests in posts or in holes in banks and forages in the sagebrush in com- 

 petition with the Horned Larks and Meadowlarks. The eggs have been 

 collected from April 2.0 to June 10, according to published records and 

 to our own and other manuscript notes, and the habits and behavior of 

 the bird are in every way similar to those of the two preceding species. 



In addition to eastern Oregon birds, we have a fair series of breeding 

 and wintering birds from the Rogue River Valley and find upon com- 

 parison that these birds are much nearer to C. c. collaris than they are to 

 the darker C. c. cafer of the Northwest coast. Breeding birds are quite 

 definitely of this form, as are a majority of the wintering individuals, 

 although some of the latter approach the darker race. 



Western Pileated Woodpecker: 



Ceophloeus pileatus picinus (Bangs) 



DESCRIPTION. "Head conspicuously crested; bill longer than head, straight with 

 wedge-like tip, beveled sides, and strong ridges, broader than high at base; nostrils 

 concealed by large nasal tufts; feet peculiar, outer hind toe shorter than outer front 

 toe, tarsus shorter than inner front toe and claw. Adult male: Brownish or grayish 

 black; entire top of head, occipital crest, and malar stripe bright red; chin and wide 

 stripe on side of head white, or sulphur yellow; patches on wings and under wing 

 coverts white; feathers of belly tipped with whitish. Adult female: similar, but fore- 

 part of head and malar stripe brown instead of red. Young: similar to female, but 

 crest salmon." (Bailey) Si%e: Length 17-18, wing 9.00, tail 6.30, bill 1.05. Nest: 

 Usually excavated, well up in either deciduous or coniferous trees. Eggs: 3 to 5, 

 white. 



DISTRIBUTION. General: From British Columbia and Montana south to central Cali- 

 fornia. In Oregon: Permanent resident of forests of entire State. 



BENDIRE (Brewer 1875) & rst included the Pileated Woodpecker in Ore- 

 gon's fauna when he listed it as resident in the pine woods about Camp 

 Harney, and he (Bendire 1895 a) first reported finding an Oregon nest of 

 the species, which contained young birds, at Fort Klamath, in June 1881. 

 He commented on the rarity of this woodpecker everywhere in the West, 

 and several of the other earlier writers listed it as a rare bird in Oregon. 

 Bowles (1901 a) reported taking eggs near Waldo, Josephine County. 



