﻿Nesting of the Arctic Three-toed Woodpecker 

 in the Adirondacks 



Hv LAURENCE ACHILLES 



A I' i luce thousand feel or more above the sea, m the denser spruce :ind 

 balsam forests of the Adirondacks, the Arc lie Three-toed Wood 



pecker is fairly common. Two broods of young were found flyinjj; 

 about on June 2s> though the nesf of which I speak was nol deserted until 

 J nly s or 6. 



The young birds betrayed their whereabouts by incessantly crying for 



lood. The nest was discovered on June- 22, but it was nol visited again till 

 ten days later, — July ■{. It was located on the summit ol Kartlctt Ridge, in 

 Essex county, New York, at an altitude of three thousand seven hundred 



feel. 



The trees near the nest were chiefly spruces, with a few balsams and 



birches scattered among them. The birds had selected a rather open place 

 for their nesting-site, as, within a radius of ten yards from (heir nest, there 

 were several windfalls and dead spruces. The ground was carpeted with 

 moss, while linnea, clintonia, wood -sorrel and bunchberry were blossoming 

 in profusion near the base of the tree. 



The hole, which was in a spruce tree, laced north by nort beast, and 

 was twenty seven feet one inch from the ground. The spruce retained 

 all its branches and some lwijj;s, although it had been dead for some time. 



The following dimensions of the hole were taken alter the young had 

 'eft their nest. The entrance to the hole was two inches wide ami one and 

 five eighths inches high. From the outside of the hole, straight through 



OVd the (op of the nest to the back of the hole, (he measurement was five 

 and three fourths inches. The outside shell, including the bark, was one 



and three-fourths inches thick. Idie diameter of the nest opening was 



three and one fourth inches, while the diameter of the- hole on the inside- at 



the bottom ol the- shad , was four and five-eighths inches. The depth of the 



hole- was nine and one eighth inches. 



( )n July <,, a fellow camper and the- writer Watched the- nest alternately 

 from two P.M. that day until two P.M. of the next, sleeping ten yards from 

 the base ol I he tree, and in plain sijdil ol (he hole-. The female seemed 

 much more- concerned about the- welfare of her -young than her mate-. 

 Before lighting near the- hob- to teed them, she would fly around in the 

 vicinity ol the nest, uttering guttural notes somewhat resembling the 

 syllable "wick." The old bird's notes were- not so sharp as those of the 

 Many Woodpecker, but more guttural. 



Several limes when the female was getting grubs in the- dead spruce near 

 the hole-, the male would fly from some distant tree and alight near her. 

 She would see him coming and, just as he was about to alight, would 



(158) 



