The California Woodpecker 
mast-eating pigeon, the extinct Passenger Pigeon of the East, was the 
extreme example. Abundance with variability has produced gregarious 
but sporadic, or roving, species, as in the case of our own Band-tailed 
Pigeon (Columba fasciata ) and the Crossbills (Loxia curvirostra and 
leucoptera). The California Woodpecker is not only gregarious but 
social, having, by cooperation in hoarding, solved the question of a 
variable food supply. 
But before we go into that, let us note how well the birds get along 
among themselves. Bickering and minor differences of opinion there 
may be, for Balanosphyra is an active, noisy bird; but it is astonishing 
how well they do agree together upon the whole, insomuch that half 
a dozen Woodpeckers may be found working silently upon the same tree. 
In defense of the common preserves, also, they show a great unanimity 
of action, combining to drive off marauding Jays and Magpies. This 
cooperative larder-keeping has in time reacted upon this Woodpecker’s 
character, making the species self-contained and self-sufficient to an 
unusual degree. They are neither wary nor friendly, and, except where 
persecuted, will go on about their business in total disregard of human 
comings and goings. Thus, an acorn-ridden oak spans the entrance 
driveway of a fashionable hotel near Santa Barbara. Automobiles and 
carriages come and go at all hours, yet at any moment in the year from 
one to a dozen Woodpeckers may be seen on that tree. 
The patchy coloring of the head gives this bird an uncanny look, 
an effect which is heightened by the white or variably light coloration 
of the iris. A “china” or “glass” eye does not ordinarily promote one’s 
confidence in a horse, and most of us prefer that our human friends 
should have the windows of their souls appropriately colored and not 
too transparent. But however we may quarrel as to matters of taste, 
we shall agree that the California Woodpecker’s eye is bright enough for 
bug-catching. Our Woodpecker is abstemious as to meat, but active 
and far-sighted in the pursuit of it. Much time is spent on lookout 
on the bare tips of elevated stubs or on telephone poles. Frequent 
sallies are made in midair, chiefly insectivorous, but partly, one suspects, 
from sheer exuberance of spirits. A most characteristic flight-movement 
is an exaggerated fluttering wherein progress is at a minimum and exercise 
at a maximum. In this way, also, they ascend at acute angles, sometimes 
almost vertically. With this movement alternates much sailing with 
outspread wings, and certain tragic pauses wherein the wings are quite 
folded. It is in such a movement of the folded-wing position, apparently, 
that the Woodpecker may make critical inspection of anything before 
him, for at other times his downward vision is obscured by the motion 
of his own wings. 
1026 
