RED-BREASTED SAPSUCKER
MALE, NEARLY LIFE SIZE
From a Water-color Painting by Allan Brooks
A. O. U. No. 403 a. Sphyrapicus ruber notkensis Suckow.
Synonyms.—Northern Red-breasted Sapsucker. Crimson-headed Woodpecker.
Description.—Like preceding but darker, red a deep crimson or maroon purple. Original markings of S. varius nuchalis still further effaced. Av. measurements of two adults from Glacier: Length, 9.94 (252.5); wing 5.24 (133.1); tail 3.40 (86.4); bill 1.03 (26.2).
Recognition Marks.—Chewink size; dark crimson of head, neck, and breast distinctive.
Nesting.—Nest: An unlined cavity excavated in dead fir or living deciduous tree, usually at considerable height. Eggs: 5-7, white. Av. size, .92 × .69 (23.4 × 17.5). Season: May or June; one brood.
General Range.—Breeding in Northwest coast district of North America from Oregon to Sitka, Alaska; south in winter to southern California.
Range in Washington.—Summer resident west of the Cascades; also partially resident in winter.
Authorities.—Sphyrapicus ruber Baird, Baird, Rep. Pac. R. R. Surv. IX. 1858, pp. 104, 105. C&S. Rh. Ra. B. E.
Specimens.—P. Prov. B. E.
Victor Savings, of Blaine, pointed out a hole fifty feet up in a big fir stub as the Sapsucker’s nest. Soon the female flew to the entrance; whereupon the male bird emerged, gorgeous in crimson panoply, and flew away, the female taking his place on the eggs. After a bit Victor pounded on the tree to raise a possible Harris further up, for the tree above is riddled with nesting holes. The female Sapsucker promptly thrust out her head and studied the situation for five minutes or so, after which she dropped back content. The only notable thing about the nest externally was a round smooth patch, the size of a dollar, upon the tree about four inches below the nest, worn and polished by the tail-feathers of the alighting birds. Judged by this mark of identification, only one of the unused holes above belonged to the Sapsucker; the remainder to the Harris Woodpecker.
The stub commands a view of the Savings’s orchard, where, Victor says, the Sapsuckers do immense damage, especially to the pear trees. This nesting tree was sixteen feet around at the base, above the root bulge, and perfectly desolate of limbs. Fortunately, also, it had long since disposed of its shaggy coat of bark,—fortunately, I say, for when a fir stub sheds its fir coat it does so suddenly, and great is the fall thereof.
It was a far cry up that barren shaft with one knew not what possibilities of defeat at the end of it; but, of course, if one wanted eggs, one had to go after them. First, we laid out a liberal supply of stout two-foot fir cleats, and a couple of pounds of small spikes. A ladder gave us a twenty-foot start, after which I nailed up the cleats with the aid of a three-quarter-inch rope passed round the tree and my body. My companion at the bottom of the tree supplied building materials which I hoisted from time to time by means of another rope.
In this laborious fashion the nest was reached. The birds, meanwhile, having become increasingly anxious, made frequent approaches from a neighboring tree, crying, kee-a, kee-aa, in helpless bewilderment. Several times they lighted near the scene of operations, but were frightened off by the resounding blows of the hand-axe. When all was over, they raised a high, strong qué-oo,—qué-oo, never before heard, and reminding one generically of the Red-headed Woodpecker of boyhood days.
Taken near Blaine. Photo by Victor Savings.
NESTING SITE OF THE NORTHWEST SAPSUCKER.
By the time I had a hole large enough to thrust in the hand, the eggs were quite buried in chips and rotten wood. But when they were uncovered, they were seen to lie, seven of them, in two regular lines, four in the front rank with sides touching evenly, and three in the rear with points dove-tailed between. There was, of course, no lining for the nest, save the rotten wood itself. The eggs were perfectly fresh and had a warm pink tint before the contents were removed. Their surface is highly polished, and their texture varied, giving an effect as of water-marked linen paper, in heavy branching lines and coarse frost-work patterns.
A. O. U. No. 404. Sphyrapicus thyroideus (Cass.).
Synonyms.—Williamson’s Woodpecker. Red-throated Woodpecker (male). Brown-headed Woodpecker (female). Black-breasted Woodpecker (female).
Description.—Adult male: In general glossy black including wings and tail; throat, narrowly, scarlet; belly gamboge yellow; sides, flanks, lining of wings and under tail-coverts more or less mingled with white,—black-and-white barred, or marked with black on white ground; a broad oblique bar on wing-coverts and small more or less paired spots on wing-quills and upper tail-coverts, white; a white post-ocular stripe and a transverse stripe from extreme forehead passing below eye to side of neck. Bill slaty; feet greenish gray with black nails; iris dark brown. Adult female: Very different; in general, closely barred black-and-white, or black-and-brownish; breast only pure black, in variable extent; whole head nearly uniform hair-brown, but showing traces of irrupting black; post-ocular stripe of male faintly indicated and occasionally with touch of red on throat; some intermediate rectrices black but exposed surfaces of central and outer tail-feathers black-and-white barred; white spots of wing-quills larger, paired, and changing to bars on inner quills. Young male: Like adult male, but black not glossy; belly paler; throat white. Young female: Like adult female but barring carried across head, neck, throat, and breast. Length of adult: 9.00-9.75 (228.6-247.6); wing 5.25 (133.3); tail 3.80 (96.5); bill .90-1.15 (22.9-29.2).
Recognition Marks.—Small Robin size; fine barring of female distinctive; extensive black of male with white head-stripes, white rump (upper tail-coverts) and white wing-bar; pattern of underparts (in male) clearly a modification of that of S. v. nuchalis, but red of throat much reduced, and black much extended.
Nesting.—Nest: A hole excavated by birds at any height in live deciduous tree or dead conifer. Eggs: 3-7, usually 4, white. Av. size, .96 × .67 (24.4 × 17). Season: May-June; one brood.
General Range.—Western United States chiefly in mountains and foothills from eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains to western slopes of Sierra-Cascades, breeding from mountains of Arizona and New Mexico north to British Columbia (in the valley of the Okanagan); south in winter to Southwestern States and Mexico.
Range in Washington.—Summer resident chiefly on eastern slopes of the Cascades.
Authorities.—Bendire, Life Hist. N. A. Birds, Vol. II. 1895, p. 97. D².
Specimens.—C.
Over and beyond the interest of life, which is always the greatest charm of an animal, be it bird or snail, a curious interest attaches to many creatures thru some accident of discovery, some misapprehension, or neglect, or absurd surprise,—the historical interest, humanly considered. Now the amusing thing about Williamson Sapsuckers, male and female, is that ages after God had joined them together man snatched them rudely asunder, thrusting Mr. Williamson into one pigeon-hole, labeled williamsonii, and Mrs. Williamson—under a vernacular alias of Brown-headed Woodpecker—since she was indiscreet enough to flit out alone one day, into another, labeled Picus thyroideus. This legal crime, which was committed in the probate court of ornithological inexperience in 1853 and 1857, was not corrected until 1873, when Mr. Henshaw caught a pair of these really very dissimilar birds innocently conspiring to set the decree of a blundering divorce court at naught.
Of the occurrence of this species in Washington, there is little to be said. There is a record for British Columbia, Similikameen, June, 1882, by R. V. Griffin, whence Bendire evidently assumes its presence along the eastern slope of the Cascade Mountains in Washington. I am aware of only one published instance[73], recording a female narrowly observed by myself at the Yakima Soda Springs, on August 9, 1899. Besides that we have obtained momentary glimpses of others in the Stehekin Valley in three successive seasons, 1906-1908.
Bendire notes that these Sapsuckers are like the other species in habit, except that they are not at all confined to deciduous trees, and that they are found (in Oregon, California, and Colorado) at the higher levels, from 5000 feet up. So far, we have found them in Washington only at altitudes of 1000 to 1500 feet.
A. O. U. No. 405 a. Phlœotomus pileatus abieticola (Bangs).
Synonyms.—Logcock. Cock-of-the-Woods. Black Woodcock.
Description.—Adult male: General plumage sooty black, lusterless save on wings and back; whole top of head and lengthened crest bright red; red malar stripes changing to black behind, and separating white spaces; chin and upper throat white; also a white stripe extending from nostrils and below eye to nape, and produced downward and backward to shoulder; narrow white stripe over and behind eye; lining and edge of wing, and a large spot (nearly concealed) at base of primaries, white; black feathers of sides sparingly white-tipped; bill dark plumbeous above, lighter below, save at tip; feet black. In some specimens the whites are everywhere tinged with pale sulphur-yellow, the color being especially noticeable in the axillaries and lining of wings. Adult female: Similar, but black on forehead, and black instead of red malar stripes. Length 15.50-19.00 (393.7-482.6); wing 8.50-10.00 (215.9-254); tail 5.85-7.40 (148.6-188); head 4.50-5.50 (114.3-139.7); bill 1.75-2.65 (44.5-67.3).
Recognition Marks.—Largest size; black, white and red on head in stripes; body mainly black.
Nesting.—Nest: high in dead trees. Eggs: 4-6, white. Av. size, 1.29 × .94 (32.8 × 23.9). Season: May; one brood.
General Range.—Formerly the heavily wooded regions of North America south of about latitude 63°, except in the southern Rocky Mountains. Now rare or extirpated in the more settled parts of the Eastern States.
Range in Washington.—Not uncommon resident in larger coniferous forests thruout the State.
Authorities.—[Lewis and Clark, Hist. Ex. (1814) Ed. Biddle: Coues, Vol. II. p. 185.] Hylatomus pileatus Baird, Baird, Rep. Pac. R. R. Surv. IX. 1858, p. 107. T. C&S. L². Rh. D¹. Ra. Kk. B. E.
Specimens.—U. of W. P. Prov. B. BN.
One’s first acquaintance with this huge black fowl marks a red-letter day in woodcraft, and it is permitted the serious student to examine the bird anatomically just once in a life-time. The scarlet crest attracts first attention, not only because of its brilliancy, but because its presence counterbalances the bill, and imparts to the head its hammer-like aspect. This crest was much sought after by the Indians of our coast, and figured prominently as a personal decoration in their medicine dances, as did the bird itself in their medicine lore. A measurement of twenty-eight inches from wing-tip to wing-tip marks the size of this “Black Woodcock,” while the stiffened tail-feathers with their down-turned vanes show what adequate support is given the clinging claws when the bird delivers one of its powerful strokes. The bill is the marvel. Made apparently of horn, like other birds’ bills, it has some of the attributes of tempered steel. The bird uses it recklessly as both axe and crowbar, for it hews its way thru the bark of our largest dead fir trees, in its efforts to get at the grubs, which have their greatest field of activity between the bark and the wood. It pries off great chips and flakes by a sidewise wrench of its head. A carpenter is known by his chips, but no carpenter would put his chisels to such hard service as the bird does his. As a result there is no mistaking the bark pile which surrounds the base of certain old stubs in the forest for the work of any other agency.
Possibly the most interesting of all is the Log-cock’s tongue, which it is able to protrude suddenly to a distance of four or five inches beyond the tip of its beak. This provision enables the bird to economize labor in the tracking of buried sweets, and the arrangement is made possible by the great development of the hyoid bones with their muscular attachments. These extend backward from the base of the tongue over and around the skull, nearly to the upper base of the bird’s bill again.
The great forest fires which have ravaged our State have proved a god-send to the Woodpeckers, altho they are in no way responsible for them. The Pileated Woodpecker does his share in staying the ravages of the wood-working insects, but he is even more interested in the spoliation of fallen logs and so hastens rather than retards decay. A pair of these Woodpeckers will gradually tear a rotten log to pieces in pursuit of the grubs and wood-boring ants which it harbors. They are shy or confiding just in proportion to the amount of persecution which they have been called upon to endure. I have waited half a day trying to get a specimen, and again I have sat under a shower of chips or ogled a busy pair in the open at forty feet.
The Log-cock has a variety of notes, and one who learns them will find the bird much more common than he may have supposed. The most noteworthy of these is a high-pitched stentorian call, which is not exactly laughter, altho something like it in form, hü ha ha ha ha ha ha ha hü. “At a distance this call sounds metallic; but when at close range it is sent echoing thru the forest, it is full and clear, and it is the most untamably wild sound among bird notes.”
Taken in Pierce County. Photo by J. H. Bowles.
PILEATED WOODPECKER LEAVING NEST.
In this connection wish to mention a mysterious sound which I have several times heard in the depths of the western forest, but to whose authorship I have no clew unless it proceeds from this bird. The note comes from well up in the trees, and is repeated slowly, after little intervals, and with a sort of funereal solemnity. If I venture to literate it, the letters are to be thought rather than said,—or better still, thought while whistled in a low key (si) poolk(ng) - - - (si)poolk(ng) - - (si)poolk(ng). Who will “riddle me this mystery”?
The Pileated Woodpecker chisels out its nesting hole at any height in dead timber, whether of fir, pine, spruce, or other. It nests regularly in this State, but the taking of its eggs is something of a feat; so, in default of much-coveted “luck,” we fall back on Bendire[74]: “From three to five eggs are usually laid to a set, but I have seen it stated that the Pileated Woodpecker often laid six, and that a nest found near Farmville, Virginia, contained eight. An egg is deposited daily, and incubation begins occasionally before the set is completed, and lasts about eighteen days, both sexes assisting in the duty, as well as in caring for the young. Like all Woodpeckers the Pileated are very devoted parents, and the young follow them for some weeks after leaving the nest, until fully capable of caring for themselves. Only one brood is raised in a season. The eggs of the Pileated Woodpecker are pure china-white in color, mostly ovate in shape; the shell is exceedingly fine-grained and very glossy, as if enameled.”
A. O. U. No. 408. Asyndesmus lewisi Riley.
Synonym.—Black Woodpecker.
Description.—Adults: Above shining black with a greenish bronzy luster; “face,” including extreme forehead, space about eye, cheeks, and chin, rich crimson; a collar around neck continuous with breast hoary ash; this ashy mingled intimately with carmine, or carmine-lake, on remaining underparts, save flanks, thighs and crissum, which are black; feathers of nape and underparts black and compact at base but finely dissected on colored portion of tips, each barb lengthened and bristly in character. Bill and feet black; iris brown. Young birds lack the crimson mask and hoary collar; the underparts are gray mingled with dusky below, with skirtings of red in increasing abundance according to age. Length of adult: 10.00-11.00 (254-279.4); wing 6.75 (171.5); tail 4.50 (114.3); bill 1.20 (30.5).
Recognition Marks.—Robin size; shining black above, hoary collar and breast; red mingled with hoary ash on underparts distinctive.
Nesting.—Nest: in hole excavated in dead tree, usually at considerable height. Eggs: 5-9, white, slightly glossed. Av. size, 1.03 × .80 (26.2 × 20.3). Season: third week in May to first week in June; one brood.
General Range.—Western United States from the Black Hills and the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific, and from southern British Columbia to southern Alberta, south to Arizona, and (in winter) western Texas. Casual in Kansas (A. O. U.).
Range in Washington.—Summer resident in timbered sections (Arid Transition and lower Canadian life-zones) east of the Cascades; especially partial to cottonwood timber lining the larger streams; locally distributed or colonizing west of the mountains, chiefly in burns.
Authorities.—[Lewis and Clark, Hist. Ex. (1814), Ed. Biddle; Coues, Vol. II., p. 187]. Melanerpes torquatus, Bonap. Baird, Rep. Pac. R. R. Surv. IX., 1858, p. 116. T. C&S. L². D¹. Kb. Ra. D². Ss¹. Ss². Kk. J. B. E.
Specimens.—U. of W. P. Prov. C. E.
Not the least strange of the many new creatures discovered by a famous expedition of a hundred years ago was this curious black Woodpecker, which Wilson named torquatus (collared), but which soon became known by the name of the intrepid leader, Captain Meriwether Lewis. In habit and appearance the bird combines Crow, Jay, Woodpecker, Flicker, and Flycatcher. It is perhaps as flycatcher that we know him best, as we see him sail out from the summit of a cottonwood or towering pine-tree and make connection with some object to us invisible. If the insects are flying freely, the bird may conclude to remain aloft for a few minutes, fluttering about in great watchful circles, ready for momentary dashes and adroit seizures. A dozen of his fellows may be similarly engaged in the same vicinity, for Lewis is ever a sociable bird, and when he returns to his perch he will raise a curious raucous twitter, a rasping, grating, obstructed sound, which is his best effort at either conversation or song.
In passing from tree to tree the Woodpecker presents a Crow-like appearance, for it moves with a labored, direct flight, which is quite different from the bounding gait so characteristic of many of its real kinfolk. In alighting, also, the bird is as likely to bring up on top of a limb, in respectable bird-fashion, as to try clinging to the tree trunk.
Lewis Woodpeckers are rather wary, and if one starts out to secure a specimen, he is surprised to note how the birds manage to edge off while still out of range, and to fly away across the tree-tops rather than trust themselves to the lower levels. It is well worth one’s while to examine a specimen, because of the exceptional character of the bird’s plumage. The hoary ash of the collar contrasts strikingly with the glossy green of the upperparts, while the rich crimson, mingled with ashy, below, serves to emphasize the extraordinary hair-like character of the feathers themselves. If it had been a Sapsucker, now, or a Harris, we could readily understand how the abdominal plumage might have been teased to rags thru constant friction with rough bark; but this lazy Jack-of-all-trades, who is more flycatcher than true woodpecker, how did he get his under-plumage so fearfully mussed?
For all the Black Woodpecker keeps largely to the tops of trees, it is not averse to ground-meats, and where unmolested, will descend to feed with Cousin Flicker upon crickets, geotic beetles, or fallen acorns. Grasshoppers are a favorite food, and during the season of their greatest abundance the bird requires little else. Service-berries are a staple in season, wild strawberries are not often neglected, and the bird has been known to filch a cherry now and then. Indeed, it is noteworthy that in certain fruit-growing sections, such as the Yakima Valley, Black Woodpeckers have increased in numbers of late. It must not be hastily concluded on this account that the Woodpecker is a menace to the orchard. He earns what he eats. Orchards attract insects, and insects attract birds. Which will you have, no birds, more insects, and so, eventually, no fruit? or more birds, fewer insects, and enough fruit for all?
LEWIS WOODPECKER.
The occurrence of the Black Woodpecker west of the Cascades is subject to little-understood fluctuations. One year the birds will abound in a certain section, while the year following none are seen. Whether this is because the local food supply has become exhausted with a season’s foraging, or whether the birds are simply whimsical in choice, we do not know. Doubtless, in any event, the rapid opening up of new territory, thru the cutting and partial burning of timber, has provided a field of opportunity too large for the species to fully occupy. With such wealth before them the early colonists may naturally have become a little saucy.
Taken in Whatcom County. Photo by the Author.
AN OLD BURN SUCH AS LEWIS WOODPECKERS DELIGHT IN.
A. O. U. No. 412a. Colaptes auratus luteus Bangs.
Synonyms.—Flicker. Northern Flicker. Golden-winged Woodpecker. Yellow-hammer. High-hole. High-holder. Pigeon Woodpecker. Wake-up.
Description.—Adult male: Top of head and cervix ashy gray, with a vinaceous tinge on forehead; a bright scarlet band on the back of the neck; back, scapulars, and wings vinaceous gray with conspicuous black bars, brace-shaped, crescentic or various; primaries plain dusky on exposed webs; lining of the wing and shafts of the wing-quills yellow; rump broadly white; upper tail-coverts white, black-barred in broad, “herring-bone” pattern; tail double-pointed, black, and with black shafts on exposed upper surface; feathers sharply acuminate; tail below, golden-yellow and with yellow shafts, save on black tips; chin, sides of head, and throat vinaceous, enclosing two broad, black, malar stripes, or moustaches; a broad, black, pectoral crescent; remaining underparts white with heavy vinaceous shading on breast and sides, everywhere marked with sharply defined and handsome round, or cordate, spots of black. Bill and feet dark plumbeous. Adult female: Similar, but without black moustache. Sexes about equal in size. Length 12.00-12.75 (304.8-323.9); av. of thirteen specimens: wing 6.13 (155.7); tail 4.34 (110.2); bill 1.34 (34).
Recognition Marks.—Size not comparable to that of any better known bird; scarlet nuchal band; yellow “flickerings” in flight; pectoral crescent; white rump; black-spotted breast, etc.
Nesting.—Does not breed in Washington. Nest: an excavation in a tree or stump, usually made by the bird, at moderate heights; unlined, save by chips. Eggs: 4-10, usually 7 or 8, glossy white. Av. size, 1.09 × .85 (27.7 × 21.6).
General Range.—Northern and eastern North America, west to the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains and Alaska. Occasional on the Pacific slope from California northward. Accidental in Europe.
Range in Washington.—Casual during migrations—a straggler from Alaska.
Authorities.—Dawson, Auk, Vol. XXV., Oct. 1908, p. 484.
Specimens.—Prov. E.
The true Yellow-shafted Flicker, the familiar bird of the Eastern States, is occasionally taken as a straggler during the fall migrations. Mr. D. E. Brown took a typical specimen at Glacier, in 1904, and Mr. Victor Savings, of Blaine, has shot one and seen several others. A specimen in Mr. Rathbun’s collection was taken by Mr. Matt. H. Gormley, on Orcas Island, October 15, 1903. The bird is a male and is typical save for the faintest possible tinge of salmon in the yellow, which marks him as a border-line specimen, probably a British Columbian bird which did not deflect eastward sufficiently in the autumn retreat.
According to Nelson, this bird is abundantly distributed thruout the timbered portions of Alaska, west even to the neighborhood of Bering Straits, and it is only surprising that so few of them come straight south to winter.
Upon the eastern borders of the range of C. cafer, viz., upon the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains in British Columbia, Idaho, Montana, and southward, specimens showing mixed characters of cafer and auratus are found—in such numbers, indeed, that they were formerly given a distinctive name, Colaptes hybridus Baird. This half-breed stock is perhaps the most interesting example of hybridization in American ornithology, presenting, as it does, not the familiar border-line of types being differentiated by varying environment, but the re-amalgamation of related types, differentiated ages ago from a common stock, presumably in Mexico.
A. O. U. No. 413. Colaptes mexicanus collaris (Vigors).
Synonyms.—Red-winged Woodpecker. High-holder. “Yellow-hammer.” Pigeon Woodpecker.
Description.—Adult male: Similar to C. auratus luteus, but yellow of feather-shafts, etc., replaced by orange-vermillion; cast of upper plumage correspondingly reddish (very faintly, a mere vinaceous tinge to the brown); no scarlet nuchal patch; a broad malar stripe of scarlet (replacing the black stripe of C. a. luteus); sides of head and throat clear bluish ash; underparts tinged with lilaceous. Adult female: Like male but scarlet malar stripe replaced by brown. Between this and Colaptes auratus luteus every form of gradation exists. Hybrids (for such they really are) most frequently reveal themselves by the presence of three scarlet patches (in the male), i. e., two malar and one nuchal. Length: averaging larger than C. a. luteus, up to 14.00 (355.6); wing 6.90 (175.3); tail 5.00 (127); bill 1.50 (38.1).
Recognition Marks.—Little Hawk size; brown finely barred with black above; underparts heavily spotted with black; flame-color of under wing surface prominent in flight; scarlet malar stripe of male distinctive; lighter than succeeding.
Nesting.—Much as in C. a. luteus, and eggs indistinguishable. For nesting sites makes use of wooden buildings or earth-banks in default of trees. Season: May; one brood, rarely two.
General Range.—Western United States and British Columbia from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific and south into northern Mexico, giving place to succeeding form on northwest coast slopes, to C. chrysoides in extreme southwest, and hybridizing with C. auratus luteus in northeastern and northern portion of range.
Range in Washington.—East-side, common summer resident and migrant, found to timber-line in the Cascades, where shading into next; partially resident in winter.
Authorities.—[Lewis and Clark, Hist. Ex. (1814) Ed. Biddle: Coues, Vol. II., p. 185]? C. cafer, Allen, B. N. O. C. VI. (1881), p. 128. (T). L¹.(?) D¹. Sr. D². Ss¹. Ss². J. B.
Specimens.—(U. of W.) P¹. Prov. B. BN.
Nature has not dealt justly with the East-side Flicker in the matter of providing an abundance of dead timber for nesting sites. What more natural, then, than that the stinted bird should joyfully fall upon the first “frame” houses and riddle them with holes? The front door of a certain country parsonage near North Yakima testifies to at least one pastoral vacation, by the presence of three large Flicker holes in its panels. The church hard by is dotted with tin patches which conceal this bird’s handiwork; and the mind recalls with glee how the irreverent Flicker on a summer Sunday replied to the parson’s fifthly, by a mighty rat-at-at-at-at on the weather siding. The district schoolhouse of a neighboring township is worst served of all, for forty-one Flicker holes punctuate its weather-beaten sides—reason enough, surely, for teaching the young idea of that district how to shoot. Indeed, the school directors became so incensed at the conduct of these naughty fowls that they offered a bounty of ten cents a head for their destruction. But it is to laugh to see the fierce energy with which these birds of the plains, long deprived of legitimate exercise, fall to and perforate such neglected outposts of learning. The bird becomes obsessed by the idea of filling a particular wall full of holes, and no ingenuity of man can deter him. If work during union hours is discouraged, the bird returns stealthily to his task at four a. m., and chisels out a masterpiece before breakfast. If the gun speaks, and one bird falls a martyr to the sacred cause, another comes forward promptly to take his place, and there is always some patriotic Flicker to uphold the rights of academic research.
Of course the situation is much relieved in the timbered foothills and along the wooded banks of streams, where rotten stubs abound. The Flicker is at home, also, to the very limit of trees in the Cascade Mountains. Nests are ordinarily excavated late in April, and any tree or stump may serve as host. In Okanogan County I saw a Flicker’s nest in a stump only two feet high, and its eggs rested virtually upon the ground. Others occur in live willows, cottonwoods, and apple trees, as well as in dead pines—the last named occasionally at a height of sixty or seventy feet. They nest also in the walls of buildings, in which case they lug in the chips to lay on beam or sill, and so prevent the eggs from rolling. In Chelan County a nest was found in a bank of fine earth among those of a colony of Bank Swallows. True to tradition the birds had gone downward after entering this bank. Excavation proved to be such a pleasant task that they had dug a hole not only eighteen inches deep but two feet long and one wide, measured horizontally. Three cubic feet of earth these industrious birds had removed, not after the familiar pick and kick fashion of most bank delving species, but by the beakful, as Woodpeckers should.
From six to ten highly polished, semi-transparent, white eggs are laid upon the rotten wood or chips, which usually line a nest; and incubation begins customarily when the last egg is laid. Bendire notes an instance, in the Blue Mountains of Oregon, of a Flicker’s nest which contained at one time three young birds just hatched, two pipped eggs, and five perfectly fresh eggs, of which one was a runt.
Taken in Oregon. Photo by A. W. Anthony.
NEST AND EGGS OF RED-SHAFTED FLICKER.
The female is a close sitter and instances are on record where pebbles dropped in upon her have failed to dislodge her, or where once being lifted off she brushed passed the disturber to re-enter the nest. Altho provided with a bill which might prove a formidable weapon, the Flicker is of too gentle a nature to wield it in combat, and seldom offers any resistance whatever to the intruder.
After fourteen days young birds are hatched, blind, ugly, helpless. In a few days more, however, they are able to cling to the sides of the nesting hollow, and are ready to set up a clamor upon the appearance of food. This noise has been compared to the hissing of a nest of snakes, but as the fledglings grow it becomes an uproar equal to the best efforts of a telephone pole on a frosty morning.
The young are fed entirely by regurgitation, not an attractive process, but one admirably suited to the necessities of long foraging expeditions and varying fare. When able to leave the nest the fledglings usually clamber about the parental roof-tree for a day or two before taking flight. Their first efforts at obtaining food for themselves are usually made upon the ground, where ants are abundant. These with grasshoppers and other ground-haunting insects make up a large percentage of food, both of the young and adults. It will appear from this that the Red-shafted Flicker is not only harmless but decidedly beneficial—save in the matter of hostility to school boards, above mentioned.
A. O. U. No. 413 a. Colaptes mexicanus saturatior Ridgway.
Description.—Like C. m. collaris but darker; ground color of upperparts burnt umber with a purplish tinge; ground color of underparts vinaceous buff to color of back; sides of head and throat deep smoke-gray; pileum cinnamomeous. Specimens in the Provincial Museum at Victoria indicate hybridization between this form and C. auratus luteus. Of twenty-seven males from Vancouver Island nine possess in whole or in part the scarlet nuchal patch characteristic of auratus. Length up to 14.00 (355.6); av. of five Glacier specimens: wing 6.55 (166.4): tail 5.13 (130.3); bill 1.55 (39.4).
Recognition Marks.—As in preceding; darker.
Nesting.—Nest: much as in preceding, but usually higher up. Eggs: usually 6, somewhat less glossy than those of C. m. collaris.
General Range.—Northwest coast from northern California to Sitka, hybridizing with C. a. luteus northerly.
Range in Washington.—Common resident west of Cascades, breeding from tide-water to timber-line, migrating irregularly to East-side in winter; probably some substitution of northern birds for local summer residents on Puget Sound in winter.
Authorities.—? Picus mexicanus, Audubon, Orn. Biog. V., 1839, 174, pl. 416. Colaptes mexicanus Swains, Baird, Rep. Pac. R. R. Surv. IX., 1858, pp. 120, 121. C&S. Rh. Kb. Ra. Kk. B. E.
Specimens.—U. of W. P. Prov. B. BN. E.
Thoughtless people often call the Flickers of Washington “Yellow-hammers,” quite regardless of the fact that the western Flicker is no longer yellow, but orange-red. Such an oversight is unpardonable, but it would require a nice eye to distinguish out of hand this really deeply-tinted bird from its lighter brother, the Red-shafted, across the Cascades. The Cascade Mountains mark the ground of intergradation between mexicanus and saturatior, and it would seem probable that specimens taken in winter in eastern Washington and dubbed saturatior, are really birds which summer on the eastern slopes of the Cascades, and which approach the saturated type of plumage, rather than migrants from across the mountains, as has been assumed. These are mere subtleties. It is more important to note that birds of the mexicanus type do not appear to differ in song or in psychology from the familiar Colaptes auratus of the East. I therefore transcribe three paragraphs from “The Birds of Ohio” without apology, only substituting flame (i. e., orange-red) for “cloth of gold.”
Taken near Victoria. Photo by the Author.
THE OAK TREES OF CEDAR HILL.
A NESTING HAUNT OF THE NORTHWESTERN FLICKER.
It is perhaps as a musician that the Flicker is best known. The word musician is used in an accommodated sense, for the bird is no professional singer, or instrumental maestro; but so long as the great orchestra of Nature is rendering the oratorio of life, there will be place for the drummer, the screamer, and the utterer of strange sounds, as well as for the human obligato. The Flicker is first, like all other Woodpeckers, a drummer. The long rolling tattoo of early springtime is elicited from some dry limb or board where the greatest resonance may be secured, and it is intended both as a musical performance and as a call of inquiry. Once, as a student, the writer roomed in a large building, whose unused chimneys were covered with sheet-iron. A Flicker had learned the acoustic value of these elevated drums, and the sound of this bird’s reveille at 4:00 a. m. was a regular feature of life at “Council Hall.”
The most characteristic of the bird’s vocal efforts is a piercing call delivered from an elevated situation, clape or kly-ak, and cheer or kee-yer. The scythe-whetting song is used for greeting, coaxing or argumentation, and runs from a low wee-co, wee-co—thru wake-up, wake-up, wake-up—to an emphatic wy-kle, wy-kle, wy-kle, or, in another mood sounds like flicker, flicker, flicker.
Taken in Rainier National Park. Photo by W. Leon Dawson.
A NESTING SITE OF THE NORTHWEST FLICKER.
THE LARGEST STUB CONTAINED SIX EGGS ON THE POINT OF HATCHING JULY 7, 1908, WHEN THIS PICTURE WAS TAKEN.
In the early days of April courtship is in progress, and the love-making of the Flicker is both the most curious and the most conspicuous of anything in that order. An infatuated Flicker is a very soft and foolish-looking bird, but it must be admitted that he thoroly understands the feminine heart and succeeds in love beyond the luck of most. A bevy of suitors will lay siege to the affections of a fair lady, say in the top of a sycamore tree. Altho the rivalry is fierce, one gallant at a time will be allowed to display his charms. This he does by advancing toward the female along a horizontal limb, bowing, scraping, pirouetting, and swaying his head from side to side with a rythmical motion. Now and then the swain pretends to lose his balance, being quite blinded, you see, by the luster of milady’s eyes, but in reality he does it that he may have an excuse to throw up his wings and display the dazzling flame which lines them. The lady is disposed to be critical at first, and backs away in apparent indifference or flies off to another limb in the same tree. This is only a fair test of gallantry and provokes pursuit, as was expected. Hour after hour, and it may be day after day, the suit is pressed by one and another until the maiden indicates her preference, and begins to respond in kind by nodding and bowing and swaying before the object of her choice, and to pour out an answering flood of softly whispered adulation. The best of it is, however, that these affectionate demonstrations are kept up during the nesting season, so that even when one bird relieves its mate upon the eggs it must needs pause for a while outside the nest to bow and sway and swap compliments.
The Northwestern Flicker is largely, but not exclusively, resident in winter. Being restricted at that season as to its insect diet, its presence appears to depend more or less upon the abundance of fruits and nuts. It eats not only grubs and worms but seeds, acorns and berries of various kinds. The fruit of the madrone appears to be a special favorite with this bird, as it is with the Robin, and I fancied that Flickers were unusually abundant on that account in the winter of 1907-08.
A. O. U. No. 387 a. Coccyzus americanus occidentalis Ridgway.
Synonyms.—Western Yellow-billed Cuckoo. Rain-crow.
Description.—Adult: Above nearly uniform, satiny, brownish gray, with something of a bronzy-green sheen; the inner webs of the primaries cinnamon-rufous, the outer webs and sometimes the wing coverts tinged with the same; central pair of tail-feathers like the back and completely covering the others during repose; remaining pairs sharply graduated,—blackish with broad terminal white spaces, the outer pair white-edged; a bare space around the eye yellow; underparts uniform silky white or sordid; bill curved, upper mandible black, except touched with yellow on sides; lower mandible yellow, with black tip. Immature: Similar to adult, but plumage of back with slight admixture of cinnamon-rufous or vinaceous; tail-feathers narrower,—the contrast between their black and white areas less abrupt. Length 12.50-13.50 (317.5-342.9); wing 6.00 (152.4); tail 6.50 (165.1); bill 1.06 (26.9); depth of bill at base .38 (9.7).
Recognition Marks.—Robin to Kingfisher size; slim form and lithe appearance; brown above, white below; sharply-graduated, broadly white-tipped tail-feathers.
Nesting.—Nest: a careless structure of twigs, bark-strips, and catkins, placed in trees or bushes, usually at moderate heights. Eggs: 3 or 4, pale greenish blue, becoming lighter on continued exposure. Av. size, 1.31 × .94 (33.3 × 23.9). Season: June-August; one brood.
General Range.—Western temperate North America from northern Lower California north to southern British Columbia, east to New Mexico and western Texas, and south over tablelands of Mexico.
Range in Washington.—Rare summer resident, chiefly west of Cascades.
Authorities.—[“Yellow-billed cuckoo” Johnson, Rep. Gov. W. T., 1884 (1885), 22]. Lawrence, Auk, Vol. IX., No. 1. Jan. 1892, p. 44. T.(?) L¹. D¹. Ra. B. E.
Specimens.—(U. of. W.) Prov. E.
It is possible that these birds are really more numerous in Washington, west of the Cascades, than is generally supposed. They are, however, extremely shy and retiring in their habits, and very local in distribution. The latter characteristic is carried to such an extent that they may almost be said to colonize. For example, the only place they may be found with certainty, near Tacoma, is in a small area well within the city limits and surrounded by houses. In this small space four or five pairs may be found at any time during the summer.
Their harsh krow-krow-krow-krow, and the more plaintive kru-kru, kru-kru, is most often heard along the outskirts of some swamp encircled by a heavy growth of brush and small conifers mixed with deciduous trees. From the krow-krow note the birds have gained the name Rain Crow, popular superstition pointing out the fact that it usually rains soon afterward (an occurrence not at all unlikely to happen in western Washington, irrespective of the suggestion of the Cuckoo).
Their food consists entirely of caterpillars, spiders, and other insects, this being perhaps the only bird to make war extensively upon the tent-caterpillar. The poem, “He sucks little birds’ eggs to make his voice clear,” etc., applies only to the Cuckoo of Europe. Small birds, it is true, are very often seen in pursuit of a Cuckoo, but this must be purely on account of its close resemblance in form to that of their arch-enemy, the Sharp-shinned Hawk.
The nest is rather a frail structure, tho much more bulky than nests of the Black-billed or Yellow-billed Cuckoo. It is placed from four to ten feet from the ground, usually nearer ten, and is most often built against the trunk of a baby fir. The materials used consist of coarse dead twigs, heavily lined with coarse tree-moss and sprays of dead fir needles.
The eggs are two or three in number, most often three, and are laid from the second week in June to the first of July. They are a pale bluish green in color, overlaid with a light chalky deposit, somewhat like that found on Cormorant eggs. In shape they vary from long to rounded oval, and average in measurement 1.60 × .99 inches. A week often elapses between the laying of the first and the last egg.
Upon one occasion I noticed a most interesting trait in these birds, which I never observed in any other species. While standing in an open woodland listening to a pair of Cuckoos calling to each other, I saw the male suddenly fly past with a large green worm in his bill. He flew directly to the female, who was perched in a tree a few yards distant, and for a moment or two they sat motionless a few inches apart looking at each other. The male then hovered lightly over his mate and, settling gently upon her shoulders, gracefully bent over and placed the worm in her bill. It was a pretty and daintily performed piece of love-making.
J. H. Bowles.
A. O. U. No. 390. Ceryle alcyon (Linn.).
Synonym.—Commonly called plain Kingfisher.
Description.—Adult male: Above, bright bluish gray, feathers with blackish shafts or shaft-lines; loosely crested; edge of wing white; primaries dusky, white-spotted on outer web, narrowly white-tipped, broadly white on inner web; coverts often delicately tipped or touched with white; tail bluish gray above, the central feathers with herring-bone pattern of dusky; remaining feathers only blue-edged, dusky, finely and incompletely barred with white; lower eyelid white, and a white spot in front of eye; throat and sides of neck, nearly meeting behind, pure white; a broad band of bluish gray across the breast; remaining underparts white, sides under wing, and flanks, heavily shaded with blue-gray; bill black, pale at base below; feet dark. Adult female: Similar, but with a chestnut band across lower breast, and with heavy shading of the same color on sides. Immature: Like adults, except that the plumbeous band of breast is heavily mixed with rusty (suggesting chestnut of female). Length 12.00-14.00 (304.8-355.6); wing 6.21 (157.7); tail 3.84 (97.5); bill from nostril 1.69 (42.9).
Recognition Marks.—“Kingfisher” size; blue-gray and white coloration; piscatorial habits; rattling cry.
Nesting.—Nest: at end of tunnel in bank, four to six feet in, unlined. Eggs, 6-8, pure white. Av. size, 1.31 × 1.04 (33.3 × 26.4). Season: May; one brood.
General Range.—North America from the Arctic Ocean south to Panama and the West Indies. Breeds from the southern border of the United States northward.
Range in Washington.—Summer resident, chiefly at lower levels; partially resident west of the Cascades, and casually resident on the East-side.
Authorities.—[Lewis and Clark. Hist. Ex. (1814) Ed. Biddle: Coues. Vol. II., p. 189.] Ceryle alcyon, Boie, Baird, Rep. Pac. R. R. Surv. IX., 1858, p. 158. T. C&S. L¹. D¹. Sr. Kb. Ra. D². Ss¹. Ss². Kk. J. B. E.
Specimens.—U. of W. P. Prov. B. BN. E.