WOODPECKERS: Family Picidae [387] 



ing species near Fort Dalles, but Bendire (1877) reported the first actual 

 nest as taken at Camp Harney, May 2.7, 1875. He (1895 a) also recorded 

 a nest taken at Crater Lake, May 2.9, 1883. Many writers since that time 

 have listed it, and our own notes show it to be a widely distributed 

 permanent resident. It is not common west of the Cascades, but Gabriel- 

 son saw it on Rustler Peak near Mosquito Ranger Station on the Rogue 

 River National Forest and collected a female on Little Gray-back Moun- 

 tain, just south of the Oregon-California line, on July 16, 1933. On the 

 next day the authors watched a pair feeding a nest full of young in an 

 old pine snag in the same vicinity. Patterson found eggs from May 8 to 

 1 6 in the southern Cascades. 



Arctic Three-toed Woodpecker: 

 Picoides arcticus (Swainson) 



DESCRIPTION. "Adult male: Upper parts glossy blue black except for squarish yellow 

 crown patch, fine white spotting on wings, and plain white outer tail feathers; 

 sides of head black and white; under parts white, heavily barred with black on 

 sides. Adult female: similar, but without yellow on head. Young male: like adult, 

 but yellow crown patch more restricted, black of upper parts duller, under parts 

 tinged with brown. Young female: crown black, sometimes with traces of yellow. 

 Length: 9.50-10.00, wing 4. 85-5. 15, tail 3.60, bill 1.40-1.60." (Bailey) Nest: In 

 dead trees or stumps, usually close to the ground. Eggs: i to 4, usually 4, white. 

 DISTRIBUTION. General: From Alaska, Yukon, and northern Mackenzie, northern 

 Minnesota, Michigan, and New York. In Oregon: Permanent resident in lodgepole 

 pine forests of Canadian Zone in Blue Mountains, Cascades, and Siskiyous. 



NEWBERRY (1857) first reported the Arctic Three-toed Woodpecker for 

 Oregon, from the Cascades. Bendire (1877, i895a) found it at Camp 

 Harney and recorded eggs taken at Linkville (Klamath Falls), May 2.5, 

 1883, an d Merrill (1888) listed it as breeding at Fort Klamath. Since 

 that time there have been numerous records for the State. We have 

 collected 34 specimens, the most easterly from Whitney, Baker County, 

 and the most westerly from Bolan Lake, Josephine County. 



As the yellow pine is preferred by the Northern White-headed Wood- 

 pecker, so the lodgepole pine is the chosen haunt of the Arctic Three-toed 

 Woodpecker, and our notes show that the great lodgepole pine forest 

 lying between Bend and Klamath Falls in a more or less unbroken body 

 from the summit of the Cascades to the eastern spurs of the Paulina 

 Mountains (East and Paulina Lakes) is the center of abundance of this 

 beautiful woodpecker. Outside of this area it is much less common but 

 is found in small numbers throughout the lodgepole patches of both the 

 Blue and Siskiyou Ranges. 



The nests are usually found within a few feet of the ground in old snags 

 or stumps. Four sets of eggs in the Braly collection, taken in 1930 between 

 May 15 and June 7 in the lodgepole pine area north of Klamath Falls, 



