Part 25

Description.—Smaller than Robin; like other Woodpeckers, usually seen perched on the trunk of a tree or flying, in a strongly undulating fashion, through the air. Adult male: Top of head, line through eye and line from lower mandible to rear part of head, black, nape bright red, rest of head, white; back, black with white median stripe; wings black, spotted profusely with white; tail black, the outer feathers white, unspotted; underparts white. The adult female is precisely the same but lacks the red nape. Young birds have the crown red, the tips of the feathers lightly speckled with white. Length: 9½ inches.

Range in Pennsylvania.—A common permanent resident, usually to be found in the higher woodlands but often also in the towns.

Nest.—A cavity in a tree trunk, usually from 25 to 60 feet from the ground, the entrance about 2 inches in diameter. Eggs: 3 to 5, glossy white.

The Hairy Woodpecker’s loud, sharp peek, peek is a welcome sound in winter woods of northern Pennsylvania where so few birds are found during the cold season. This species is the enemy of all wood-boring larvæ, its sharp, chisel-like bill, long, barb-tipped tongue, strong feet, and stiff tail all being peculiarly adapted to existence on the tree-trunks. It is sometimes found in orchards, but about towns and human dwellings is not nearly so often seen as its smaller, more confiding relative, the Downy Woodpecker.

DOWNY WOODPECKER Dryobates pubescens medianus (Swainson)

Other Name.—Sapsucker (erroneous).

Description.—About the size of an English Sparrow. Precisely like the Hairy Woodpecker, but noticeably smaller, with shorter, weaker bill, and the outer tail-feathers distinctly barred with black. The Downy is quieter, less energetic bird than its larger cousin; its call-note is softer in quality and its song, which is composed of a series of call-notes rapidly repeated, is more musical than that of the Hairy Woodpecker. Length: A little under 7 inches.

Range in Pennsylvania.—An abundant permanent resident, often seen in the towns.

Nest.—A cavity in a dead stub, usually from 15 to 30 feet from the ground, the entrance about 1½ inches in diameter. Eggs: 4 to 6, laid on a heap of small chips at the bottom of the cavity, glossy white.

The careful bird student can distinguish the Hairy and Downy Woodpeckers from call-notes, general appearance, flight, or even from the sound of their pounding on wood, which in the Hairy is so loud and positive in nature as to suggest, at times, a much larger bird. The amateur, however, may have some difficulty in distinguishing the two species.

The Downy and Hairy both like to be fed suet during the winter. They will come regularly to the feeding-counter and often become quite tame.

YELLOW-BELLIED SAPSUCKER Sphyrapicus varius varius (Linnæus)

Other Names.—Yellow-bellied Woodpecker; Sapsucker.

Description.—Smaller than a Robin, with all the characteristics of the woodpecker tribe to which it belongs. Adult male: Top of head and throat rich, deep red; lines below crown-patch, back of eye, and enclosing throat to form prominent breast-patch, black; lines above and below eye white; back black, spotted with white; wings black, with prominent white patch on greater coverts, and primaries spotted; tail black, the central and outer feathers marked with white; underparts whitish and pale yellow, barred on sides and flanks with blackish gray. Adult female: Similar, but throat white. Immature birds are similar to the adult female, save on the head and back, which are brownish throughout, spotted irregularly with black and on top of head with flecks of red, yellow, and glossy black. Length: 8½ inches.

Range in Pennsylvania.—A common migrant, sometimes abundant, from March 30 to May 15 and from September 1 to November 15; rare and local as a summer resident in the northern and mountainous counties; casual in winter.

Nest.—A cavity in dead or living wood, often in a yellow birch, from 30 to 60 feet from the ground. Eggs: 3 to 6, glossy white.

The Sapsucker is, for the most part, a quiet and rather dignified woodpecker. Rarely does it pound noisily at a dead stub, searching for grubs. As a rule, it is to be seen drilling its sap-wells on the lower trunk of a maple, apple, or hemlock, where it clings sometimes for hours at a time if unmolested. These wells, which penetrate only to the sap-bearing layer of bark, are made in regular rows. Here gathers the sap which the bird regularly swallows, together with all the small insects which have come to drink. This sap-drilling is a destructive trait, for many valuable trees are girdled annually through the attacks, chiefly, of the migrant birds. During the summer the parents capture only insect food for their young.

The mewing note of the Sapsucker will startle the beginner in bird-study. It is almost as convincing an imitation of the cry of a cat as is the scolding, querulous call of a Catbird, and is a familiar sound of the spring woods.

When courtship starts, Sapsuckers quite forget their dignity and go flashing through the tree-tops, sometimes three or four in a flock, bowing and dancing, displaying their spotted wings and tails and giving forth loud and incessant Flicker-like cries of plee-kah, plee-kah.

A Sapsucker sometimes actually becomes intoxicated with the juice it has drunk and wanders through the woods bumping into trees and branches, grasping the bark as best it can with toes which are marvelously adapted to holding to rough surfaces, even while the bird sleeps.

PILEATED WOODPECKER Phlœotomus pileatus abieticola (Bangs)

Other Names.—Red-headed Woodpecker (erroneous); Cock o’ the Woods; Log-cock; Woodcock (erroneous); Indian Hen; Black Woodpecker.

Description.—Size large, about that of a Crow; both sexes with prominent triangular crests. Adult male: High crest and line from lower mandible to middle of head, bright glossy red; narrow line back of eye and prominent line from bill under eye to neck and down to edge of breast, white; throat whitish; patch at base of folded primaries and irregular barring, on sides and flanks, white; the under-wing lining and most of the inner web of primaries white, showing plainly in flight. Rest of plumage brownish black; eyes bright orange-yellow. Female: Similar, but front of head brownish, only the rear part of the crest red. Immature birds are similar to the female. Length: 17 inches.

Range in Pennsylvania.—A rare permanent resident, found chiefly in the northern mountainous counties, but a few still persist in the southwestern counties and locally elsewhere. It is becoming somewhat commoner as a result of rigid protection.

Nest.—A large cavity in a tree, drilled by the birds, usually in a dead stub, though sometimes in a living yellow birch, at from 20 to 60 feet from the ground. Eggs: 3 to 5, glossy white.

The magnificent Log-cock is all too rare in Pennsylvania, but wherever the striking creature swings noisily across a valley or pounds with its great bill into soft wood, the bird student receives a thrill few of our birds can afford. Its flight is rather slow and laborious, and noticeably less undulating than in other woodpeckers.

It is given to searching for food in deep, shadowy woods, where it is sometimes the only bird to be found, and where the sound of its hammering gives the only hint of life in the vast stillness.

The call of the Pileated is a high, irregular cackle, something like the spring song of the Flicker, but more noisy and irregular. An imitation of this cry, a clapping of the hands, or the beating of a dead stub with a stick, will sometimes bring the curious, bright-eyed creatures very close—too close, if the gunner be of the law-breaking kind. The fact that this bird is sometimes called Woodcock, and therefore regarded as a game-bird, has led to the destruction of many of them. They are naturally creatures of the wilderness, and have never been really common. Careful protection will be necessary if we are to keep them from extinction in this Commonwealth.