Nuttall's Woodpecker

Picoides nuttallii
STANFORD LOCATIONS:

Fairly common resident, breeding in a number of areas on campus, especially around oaks. One pair nested in a large century plant in the old cactus garden, another in the oak near the Faculty Club patio.
  
Nest
Location
Nest
Type
Eggs
Mating System
Dev.
Parental Care
Primary &
2ndary Diet
Foraging
Strategy
MF
I: 14 DAYS
ALTRICIAL
DECIDUOUS TREE
2.5 feet - 60 feet
F
4-5
(3-6)
MONOG
F: 29 DAYS
MF
BERRIES
HAWKS
BREEDING: Oak woodland, chaparral, riparian (esp willow-cottonwood) woodland; often foothill canyons. ? broods.
DISPLAYS: Mostly territorial: head bobbing and turning, crest raising, bill directing and raising, wing spreading and aerial displays.
NEST: Usu in dead riparian decid tree. Unlined. Excavation ca. 13 days, not reused.
EGGS: White. 0.9" (22 mm).
DIET: Insects (80%); also few acorns, sap, occ grain. Nuthatch style of gleaning from underside of limbs
CONSERVATION: Winter resident.
NOTES: Pairs remain on year-round territories. Male performs most of incubation including all nocturnal incubation and brooding. Preferentially forage on oaks; females forage on smaller branches and twigs more frequently than do males. Occ hybridizes with Ladder-backed and Downy, with which it is especially territorial. Breeding biology similar to that of Ladderback.
ESSAYS: Island Biogeography; Nonvocal Sounds; Feet; Hybridization; Interspecific Territoriality; Who Incubates?
REFERENCES: Jenkins, 1979; Miller and Bock, 1972.

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Except for Stanford Locations, the material in this species treatment is taken, with permission, from The Birder's Handbook (Paul Ehrlich, David Dobkin, & Darryl Wheye, Simon & Schuster, NY. 1988).