170 BIRDS OF ALABAMA 



in a hollow excavated by the birds in the main trunk of a tree, 

 usually from 12 to 75 feet from the ground. 



Food habits. — The food of the pileated woodpecker consists 

 mainly of ants, beetles, and wild fruits and berries, including 

 sour gum, tupelo gum, dogwood, persimmon, frost grape, 

 holly, poison ivy, sumac, and hackberry.J It never injures 

 farm crops but confines its attention to the trees of the forest, 

 where it renders valuable service in the destruction of wood- 

 boring beetles. Unfortunately, as a result of thoughtless 

 shooting, it is growing steadily scarcer. 



RED-HEADED WOODPECKER; REDHEAD; WHITE- 

 WING: Melanerpes erythrocephalus erythrocephalus 

 (Linneaus) . 



State records. — The red-headed woodpecker is locally com- 

 mon in the State, both in summer and winter. McCormack 

 records it from Leighton as "abundant during spring and sum- 

 mer. It leaves our orchards and fences about the 15th of 

 September and returns to them again early in April." Dur- 

 ing the winter of 1911-12, however, McCormack records that 

 a pair remained in his yard all winter, and in previous winters 

 he has noted a few. Avery, at Greensboro, noted the bird as 

 an abundant summer resident, a few remaining during the 

 winter. Golsan reports it plentiful in winter about Bear 

 Swamp, Autauga County. I found it very scarce in winter 

 in the southern part of the State, noting one at Orange Beach, 

 January 25, 1912, and one at Bayou Labatre, February 

 16, 1912- It was not to be found at York the last week 

 in February nor at Auburn the first week in March, but by 

 the last of April, it had appeared in numbers at both places. 

 Single birds were seen at Anniston, October 22; Greenbrier 

 Cove (Marshall County), November 7; and Jackson, Decem- 

 ber 10 (1916). It has been noted in the breeding season at 

 Tuscaloosa, Ardell, Fort Payne, Attalla, Dean, Stevenson, 

 Barachias, Seale, Castleberry, Dothan, Abbeville, Mobile, and 

 Bayou Labatre. Gutsell found it fairly common at Orange 

 Beach and on Dauphin Island late in summer. 



{Beal, F. E. L., Food of the woodpeckers of United States: Biol. Surv. Bull. 37, p. 

 85, 1911. 



