384 
BIRDS OF NEW MEXICO 
State Records. —The Red-headed Woodpecker apparently came into New 
Mexico with the scattered cottonwoods along the main river valleys, principally the 
Pecos and Rio Grande, but also along the Red River in Colfax County, where it was 
frequently seen July 28-October 24, 1913 (Kalmbach). On the Rio Grande in 
1858, it was reported 100 miles north of Fort Thorn, which would be in the vicinity 
of Socorro (Henry). On June 22, 1864, it was reported at Los Pinos near Albu¬ 
querque (Coues); and August 24-30, 1905, at Isleta (Hollister); adults were seen at 
Albuquerque, June 7-8, 1915 (Leopold); (five were seen along the railroad track 
between Isleta and La Jola, on the Rio Grande, August 2S, 1917; it was reported 
at Los Lunas, September 4, 1917 (Ligon); and found 2 miles north of Belen on May 
23, 1919, where they were seen entering a hole in a dead cottonwood, and apparently 
were breeding (Piper); one was seen 4 miles north of Albuquerque August 18, 1918; 
an adult 5 miles south of Albuquerque May 25, 1919; and in the same locality a 
nest was found containing young birds about 10 days old June 16, 1919 (Leopold). 
On July 16, 1919, Leopold reported, “Red-headed Woodpeckers are almost common 
here this summer. I see so many that I have given up keeping individual records. 
It looks as if they had become established/ 1 ] 
In the Pecos Valley a nest containing young was found near Fort Sumner on 
July 1, 1915; one of the birds was seen February 2, 1916, at Roswell (Leopold); 
[it was noted on South Spring River south of Roswell September 9, 1916; and one 
at White Tail on the east slope of the Sacramento Mountains at about 7,500 feet 
May 27, 1918 (Ligon).] In the northeastern corner of the State, one was seen 
about the middle of August, 1903, at Sierra Grande, and a few days later a young 
of the year was taken in Bear Canyon a little farther north (Howell). 
[In 1919 and 1920 Jensen noted a pair nesting in Santa Fe; in 1921 a pair of 
Sparrow Hawks t-ook the nest, but in 1922 the Red-heads were back again. 
Although, as Ligon writes, in 1919 we thought that the birds were getting fairly 
well established as far west as the Rio Grande south of Albuquerque, in 1924 and 
1925 they seemed to have largely disappeared from the eastern part of the State. 
In the summer of 1924 and the spring of 1925 Ligon frequently visited the Rio 
Grande Valley and was several times in the Pecos Valley, besides making an auto¬ 
mobile trip from Carlsbad to Clayton, traversing the length of the eastern side of the 
State. The only Red-headed Woodpecker seen during these 2 years was on May 
16, 1925, on a fence post on the Staked Plains, about 4 miles northeast of Loving- 
ton, Lea County. In 1926, he found them rather common on the Dry Cimarron 
in the northern part of Union County. They were especially numerous, August 
17 and 18, at the Fowler Ranch, 20 miles northeast of Folsom. In 1928, on June 
10, he saw one about 10 miles north of Albuquerque, among the big cottonwoods 
near the Rio Grande, carrying food to its young. On July 10, he saw one a mile 
northeast of Folsom, on the Dry Cimarron. On July 12, he saw one on the Mora 
River about two miles southeast of Shoemaker, and was told that, they were quite 
frequently seen there. From these and other observations he concludes that they 
are “fairly well distributed in eastern New Mexico but never numerous at any 
place” (MS).]—W. W. Cooke. 
Nest. Eight to eighty feet from the ground, in stubs, trunks, or branches, and 
on treeless prairies in fence posts and telegraph poles. Eggs: Usually 4 to 7, white. 
Food. Nearly twice as much vegetable as animal, mast—mainly acorns— 
and wild fruits being favorite natural foods. In certain localities cultivated fruits 
and crops are injured, and when nests are made in telegraph poles, more or less 
damage may result. While the Red-head eats some useful insects, the harmful 
ones that it destroys offset them. Besides destroying clover beetles, corn weevils, 
cherry scale, the seventeen-year locust, and codling moth larvae, in August it feeds 
