Other Woodpeckers

Taxonomy

Domain	Eukarya
Kingdom	Animalia
Phylum	Chordata
Class	Aves
Order	Piciformes
Family	Picidae
Subfamily	Picinae
Genus	Picoides

Scientific Name

Picoides pubescens

Common Name

downy woodpecker

Compiled by Whitney Cranshaw, Colorado State University:

Downy Woodpecker, Picoides pubescens (L.)
Hairy Woodpecker, Picoides villosus
Ladder-backed Woodpecker, Picoides scalaris
Three-toed Woodpecker, Picoides tridactylus
Black-backed Woodpecker, Picoides arcticus
Red-bellied Woodpecker, Melanerpes carolinus
Red-headed Woodpecker, Melanerpes erythrocephalus
Northern Flicker, Colaptes auratus
Lewis’ Woodpecker, Melanerpes lewis
Acorn Woodpecker, Melanerpes formicivorus

Hosts

Virtually all types of trees at one time or another, especially mature ones.

Damage and Diagnosis

Woodpecker damage.

Occasionally peck the bark of living branches and trunks to cause sap flow, similar to the habits of sapsuckers. Such wounds created by woodpeckers other than sapsuckers are rare, and are found primarily on trees with sweet sap (such as boxelder and other maples). These woodpeckers also often visit sap wells made by the sapsuckers to “steal” a drink and can be mistakenly accused as the makers of these wounds.

These woodpeckers are medium-sized birds, 6 (downy)-13 (flicker) inches long, All have the basic woodpecker shape, long chisel-shaped beak, tend to occur on the sides of trees and use their tails as a brace. For detailed descriptions, see one of the standard western bird field guides.

Life History and Habits

Unlike the highly migratory sapsuckers, most other woodpeckers are present all year. Some of the high mountain species, such as the three-toed, may move to lower elevations for the winter. By far the most common tree activities of woodpeckers are: 1) excavating and nesting in trunk holes, and 2) feeding on bark beetles and wood boring insects. The latter is highly beneficial and almost always requires the chipping of bark and wood to get at prey. Hairy, black-backed and three-toed woodpeckers are particularly helpful as natural controls of conifer bark beetle outbreaks. The wounds that result from woodpeckers extracting beetle larvae from under bark may be confused with the emergence holes of these same insects. In some situations, woodpecker-caused bark flakes accumulating on snow at the base of insect-infested trees (for example, spruce beetle), can be noted during aerial surveys and prove helpful in detecting infestations. The random appearance of woodpecker predation holes usually separates it from the patterned rows made by sapsuckers. Also, woodpeckers are particularly fond of tree fruits in fall. Apples and other large fruits may show peck marks that resemble insect holes. Yet another interesting habit of some woodpeckers is that of caching food. Hard-bodied insects like beetles, seeds and other food items are stored in trunk crevices, telephone poles and other places for later consumption. The Lewis’ and red-headed woodpeckers are noted for this. The acorn woodpecker, which just gets as far north as southern Colorado, is famous for its habit of pounding acorns and other mast into the bark of large, heavily-used trees called “granaries”.

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