OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE WISCONSIN AND ILLINOIS AUDUBON SOCIETIES. 
One Year 25 Cents 
Single Copy 5 Cents 
VOL. XI 
I?* ^ Published by the Wisconsin Audubon Society at Appleton, Wisconsin 
Entered as second class matter, May 16. 1904, at Appleton, Wis.. under the act of Congress of Mar, 3. 79. 
JANUARY, 1909. 
No. 7 
A RED-HEADED FAMILY . 
To all beginners in bird study I would 
recommend the woodpeckers. Their 
characteristics are so ^pronounced that 
they may be told 
almost as far as 
one can see them. 
The bounding 
flight, their man¬ 
ner of alighting, 
—as if they had 
been thrown 
against the tree 
trunk and had 
stuck there—the 
fact that they are 
continually peck¬ 
ing wood and the 
red color which 
is found on the 
heads of almost 
all the males and 
many of the 
females; all of 
these marks 
make the wood¬ 
pecker family 
unmistakable. 
The number of 
kinds found in 
any locality is 
small, there being only five common to 
the northeastern states. Of these every¬ 
one knows the Red-headed, which is the 
one we mean when we say woodpecker. 
His call is loud and the perch he selects 
is usually a dead limb or stub. I rather 
think that the Red-headed likes to attract 
attention. Perhaps the Flicker is the 
next most widely 
%j 
known; the fact 
that it has some 
thirty common 
names indicating 
its popularity. 
The Flicker is 
the only wood¬ 
pecker that you 
are apt to find on 
theground. Ants 
are a staple arti¬ 
cle of diet with 
him and if you 
go to the place 
from which he 
was flushed you 
will probably 
find a much dis¬ 
turbed commun¬ 
ity of ants. As 
the Flicker flies 
the yellow which 
shows under his 
wings will fur¬ 
nish a conspicu¬ 
ous mark ofiden- 
bince there is a black sheep in every 
family we need not be surprised to find 
one member of this estimable family very 
much looked down upon. When you 
Downy Woodpecker and Part of Nest. 
tification. 
