216 WOODPECKERS 
eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains; casual in Utah and southern Ari¬ 
zona. 
Nest. — 8 to 80 feet from the ground in stumps, dead trunks or branches, 
and on treeless prairies in fence posts and telegraph poles. Eggs: usually 
4 to 7, white. 
Food. — In summer, insects such as grasshoppers, ants, beetles, flies, 
and larvae, fruits and berries; in fall and winter, nuts, wild berries, and 
small grains. 
The red-headed woodpecker is one of our handsomest birds. Its 
colors are all keen — the red, glowing red ; the white, snow white ; 
and the black, glossy black. 
In its methods of hunting, like all the members of the genus 
Melanerpes, it combines the ways of the flycatchers and the wood¬ 
peckers that get their food almost wholly from tree trunks and 
branches. 
In the east, where it depends largely on beechnuts for its fall and 
winter supplies, its movements are very erratic, its appearance de¬ 
pending on the crop. 
407. Melanerpes formicivorus (Swains.). Ant-eating Wood¬ 
pecker. 
Adult male. — Feathers around base of bill and chin black, bordered by 
band of white or yellow; crown red; 
sides of head, upper parts, and chest 
band glossy greenish ; blue black chest 
streaked with white; rump, wing patch, 
and belly, white. Adult female : similar, 
but with a black band separating white 
or yellow forehead from red crown. 
Young: similar to adults and with same 
sexual differences in crown, but colors 
duller. Wing: 5.30-5.90, tail 3.10-3.60, 
bill 1.10-1.22. 
Remarks. — The squarish white patch 
on the forehead is enough to distinguish 
the formicivorus group from all other 
woodpeckers. 
Distribution. — Breeds in Lower Tran¬ 
sition zone from Texas to Arizona, and 
south to Isthmus of Tehuantepec, Mexico. 
Nest. —Usually in white oaks, but also in pines. Eggs: 4 or 5, white. 
Food. — Principally acorns, but also fruit, flies, ants, beetles, and 
grasshoppers. 
One of the most pleasantly familiar sounds in the live-oak belt in¬ 
habited by formicivorus and its allies is the ja-cob, ja-cob, ja-cob, 
ja-cob uttered by these handsome woodpeckers as they fly from tree 
to tree, their white rump and wing patches showing as they go. In 
coming down from the fir forests of the mountains where the only 
visible woodpeckers have fled silently before you, the soft cheery 
voices of these birds have a friendly ring grateful to the ear. They 
Fig. 282. 
