American Hairy Woodpecker Habitats: Black Body, Cavity Nest, White Egg

Summary: North American hairy woodpecker habitats year-round from Canada south through Mexico and Central America get black bodies from white eggs in cavity nests.

male hairy woodpecker (Picoides villosus); Whitby, Durham Region, Southern Ontario, east central Canada; January 2006: Mdf, CC BY SA 3.0 Unported, via Wikimedia Commons

North American hairy woodpecker habitats adapt to cultivators through Picidae family predatory wildlife associations with farm and garden pests and to naturalists through distribution ranges from Canada southward through Mexico and beyond.

Hairy woodpeckers bear their common name and the scientific name Picoides villosus (woodpecker-like full of hair) because of the hair-like, long, white feathers on their backs. Ornithologists consider, as valid or not, subspecies categorizations subsequent to Carl Linnaeus's (May 23, 1707-Jan. 10, 1787) classification in 1766 of the nominate Picoides villosus villosus. They debate Cabanis, Chihuahua, extimus, fumeus, Harris, intermedius, jardinii, Maynard, Mexican, Modoc/sierra, Newfoundland, northern, parvulus, piger, Queen Charlotte, Rocky, scrippsae, Sitka, southern and white-breasted subspecies validity.

Sixteen-year lifespans expect beaver ponds, coniferous, deciduous, mature, mixed or second-growth forests, forest edges, open woodlands, orchards, river groves, suburban backyards and wooded parks and swamps.

March through July facilitate brooding one three- to six-egg clutch, followed by a second if the first fails, at three- to 55-foot (0.91- to 16.76-meter) heights.

Parents-to-be gut in 17 to 24 days tunnels with elongated, 2- to 2.5-inch- (5.08- to 6.35-centimeter-) high, 1.25- to 1.5-inch- (3.18- to 3.81-centimeter-) wide entrance holes. Ten- to 15-inch- (25.4- to 38.1-centimeter-) deep, 4.5-inch (11.43-centimeter) diameter cavity nests within dead stubs, heart rot-weakened trees, nest-boxes or telegraph poles house glossy, smooth eggs. Day-shift mothers-to-be and night-shift fathers-to-be implement 10- to 15-day incubations of 0.79- to 1.14-inch (20- to 29-millimeter) by 0.63- to 0.75-inch (16- to 19-millimeter) white eggs.

Homelessness from agro-industry, construction, recreation, tourism and urbanization and predation by badgers, foxes, opossums, raccoons, sparrows, squirrels, starlings and weasels jeopardize North American hairy woodpecker habitats.

Blind, helpless, large-headed, naked hatchlings keep purring in their cavity nests and their sharp, single tooth from their time in the eggs and know pink skin. They live off insects in the bills of both parents in the furthest interiors the first eight days and on cavity summits as nine- to 11-day-olds. They move to entrances as 12- to 19- or 21-day-olds and, while maintaining daily parental contact another three weeks, to nearby roosts as 20- to 22-day-olds. Adults need acorns, ants, aphids, bark beetle larvae, bees, berries, caterpillars, cockroaches, crickets, fruits, grasshoppers, millipedes, moths, sap, seeds, spiders, suet, sugarcane juices, wasps and wood-borers.

North American hairy woodpecker habitats at 2,952.76- to 11,318.9-foot (900- to 3,450-meter) altitudes offer winter's coldest temperatures at minus 60 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 51.11 degrees Celsius).

Apple, aspen, birch, cherry, chokecherry, corn, Douglas-fir, elm, hemlock, June-berry, juniper, maple, mulberry, oak, peanuts, pine, plum, serviceberry, sunflower and walnut promote hairy woodpecker life cycles.

Orange-red crown patches, red-patched crowns and white-patched backsides of heads qualify as respective hallmarks of gray-brown-eyed juvenile, red-brown-eyed male adult and red-brown-eyed mature female hairy woodpeckers. Black napes, tails and upper-parts, black-and-white-striped cheeks, blue-gray feet and legs, white backs, outer wing-feathers and underparts, white-barred black wing-feathers and white-tipped black bills reveal adults. Gliding and wing-beat undulations on 12.99- to 16.16-inch (33- to 41-centimeter) wingspans suggest 7.09- to 10.24-inch (18- to 26-centimeter), 1.41- to 3.35-ounce (40- to 95-gram) adults.

North American hairy woodpecker habitats team bold, grating, loud, low-pitched, sharp, short peek calls, courtship-, intrusion-, mating-, territory-related, even-tapped, loud drumming and rattle and whinny sounds.

illustration of eggs of hairy woodpecker (Picoides villosus) under scientific synonym of Picus villosus; Illustrations of the Nests and Eggs of Birds of Ohio, Plate LXIV, figure 1, opposite page 264: Public Domain, via Biodiversity Heritage Library

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

male hairy woodpecker (Picoides villosus); Whitby, Durham Region, Southern Ontario, east central Canada; January 2006: Mdf, CC BY SA 3.0 Unported, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Picoides-villosus-001.jpg

illustration of eggs of hairy woodpecker (Picoides villosus) under scientific synonym of Picus villosus; Illustrations of the Nests and Eggs of Birds of Ohio, Plate LXIV, figure 1, opposite page 264: Public Domain, via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/34908447

For further information:

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