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Acorn Woodpecker
(Melanerpes formicivorus)
Description: 8-9 1/2" (20-24 cm). Male has yellowish-white forecrown; red crown; light eyes; black nape, back, wings, and tail. Chin black; throat and sides of head yellowish white; breast and flanks whitish with heavy dark streaking; belly, wing patches, and rump white. Female has black forecrown, otherwise identical to male.Voice: A loud ja-cob, ja-cob or wake-up, wake-up.
Habitat: Open oak and pine-oak forests.
Nesting: 4 or 5 white eggs in a hole in a tree. Nests in colonies, with all members of colony sharing in excavating holes-mostly in dead oak branches-feeding young, and possibly incubating.
Range: Resident from southern Oregon south through California, and in Arizona, New Mexico, and western Texas. Also in tropics.
Discussion: This well-named woodpecker harvests acorns and, in agricultural or suburban areas, almonds and walnuts as well. In autumn the birds store their crop of nuts tightly in individual holes so that no squirrel can pry them out. The storage trees are usually mature or dead pines or Douglas firs with thick, soft bark, but dead oak branches and fence posts are also used. The holes made by a colony are used year after year. Acorns seem to be emergency provisions; on mild winter days these birds catch flying insects.