[381] BIRDS OF OREGON 



DISTRIBUTION. General: Sierra Nevada Mountains of California, northern Oregon, 

 and south central Washington and east into Nevada. In Oregon: Permanent resident 

 along east slope of Cascades from Columbia River south to vicinity of Diamond 

 Lake, at which point it crosses over summit to intergrade with harrist, although 

 most breeding birds of Rogue River Valley are of this form. Eastward, the birds 

 from Redmond and Bend east and south through Silver Lake, Adel, and Hart Moun- 

 tain, belong here. (See Figure 9.) 



THE BREEDING RANGE of the Modoc Woodpecker in Oregon is roughly a 

 great triangle with the apex at The Dalles and the base extending from 

 southern Josephine County eastward to southeastern Lake County. It 

 includes western Wasco and Jefferson Counties and the timbered parts of 

 Deschutes, Lake, Klamath, Jackson, and Josephine Counties. The bird 

 wanders about somewhat in the winter. Walker (192.4) took one at 

 Tillamook, January 13, 1916, and Jewett has a specimen in his collection 

 taken August n, 192.5, at Netarts. Working out the range of this bird 

 is a puzzling proposition at best, but the general line of intergradation 

 can best be illustrated by noting that birds of intermediate character 

 have been taken by us at Crane Prairie (April 19), Bend (February 15), 

 Keno (March zz), Rustler Peak (November 15), and Brownsboro (April 

 17, June 19, and December 8). The correct allocation of the birds from 

 the Rogue River is particularly difficult, but after careful consideration 

 of the specimens we feel that they properly belong here. An adult male 

 (Gabrielson Coll. No. 1511) taken east of Butte Falls on July zz, i9z6, is 

 clearly harrisi, whereas birds taken at Hayden Mountain (z), Four-mile 

 Lake, Mosquito Ranger Station, Williams, and Grants Pass are identical 

 with birds from Lake County and northeastern California. In addition, 

 the bird from Rustler Peak and the three from Brownsboro above are also 

 from this Rogue River territory. There is also an intermediate bird from 

 Portland (December zy, I9Z4), probably a winter straggler that came 

 through the Columbia Gorge from the eastern slope of the Cascades. 

 The records of Newberry (1857) in the Cascades, Suckley (Cooper and 

 Suckley 1860) at Fort Dalles, Bendire (1888) at Fort Klamath, Baird 

 (Baird, Cassin, and Lawrence 1858) at Fort Dalles, and Mearns (1879) 

 and Merrill (1888), both at Fort Klamath, apply to this particular 

 subspecies. 



The nest and eggs of the Modoc Woodpecker are not different from 

 those of Harris's Woodpecker, but the latter is a bird of the spruce and 

 fir forests, whereas the former is associated to a great extent with the 

 yellow pine forests and aspen thickets of the more open timber of the 

 eastern slope of the Cascades and the great timber belt of south-central 

 Oregon. There are three sets of four eggs and one of three in the Braly 

 collection that were taken in the vicinity of Fort Klamath between May 

 13 and 30, 1930, and one set of four eggs taken in the same territory, 

 May 10, 1931. 



