BIRDS OF NEW YORK 1 55 



Downy woodpecker and unfortunately is becoming less and less common, 

 because there are fewer and fewer dead branches for its accommodation; 

 but the advent of the telegraph pole has partly saved him in some dis- 

 tricts where he otherwise would have disappeared, by furnishing him at 

 the same time an outlook from which to pursue winged prey — a habit 

 which is rather uncommon in this order of birds — and also a site for a nest. 

 In general, one must conclude that this species is decidedly less numerous 

 even in western New York than the Flicker or the Downy woodpecker and 

 in eastern New. York about as rare as the Hairy woodpecker. In 1905 

 our party found it on the outskirts of the Adirondacks and in the region 

 of the Black river, so one might say that it is fairly distributed throughout 

 the Alleghanian faunal area of New York with the exception of the greater 

 portion of the coastal district and the lower Hudson valley. 



Haunts and habits. The Red-headed woodpecker is, more than any 

 of our other woodpeckers except the Flicker, a bird of the open. He is 

 frequently seen on the dead tops of stubs and trees and on fence posts 

 and telegraph poles far from the shelter of the forest, but he is not at home 

 upon the ground as the Flicker is and when he alights there in pursuit of 

 grasshoppers or other prey he does not hop around like the Flicker but 

 immediately flies up again to his station on the fence post or dead stub. 

 The preferred home of this woodpecker is in open groves and " slashings " 

 and " old burns " and tracts of half-dead forest where the live trees are 

 scattered and dead stubs are in abundance. In such places as these he 

 is sometimes quite common but never rivals the Flicker in abundance about 

 our orchards, villages and farmyards. He is not seen chiseling away at 

 dead wood or prying behind the bark for wood-boring insects so often 

 as the Hairy and Downy woodpeckers, but frequently engages in this kind 

 of foraging during the fall and winter, and at this season is also fond of 

 nuts and dried fruits and, when they are not to be found, usually wanders 

 to a milder climate or to a locality where they are plentiful. Next to 

 the Robin and Cherry bird this species is the most complained of by the 

 grower of small fruits. On many occasions I have been surprised to see 



