Lewis's Woodpecker
Lewis's Woodpecker is a distinctive bird of the open woodlands of the American west. Quite different in plumage from other American woodpeckers, Lewis's Woodpecker outwardly bears some resemblance to crows, with its glossy black back and slow, rowing wing strokes in flight. Lewis's Woodpecker also exhibits unusual feeding habits, including flycatching and gleaning of insects as well as collection and storage of acorns.

The species breeds in appropriate habitat in much of the western United States, from eastern Washington to the Black Hills of South Dakota, and from the foothills of the Sierra Nevada to New Mexico. This range generally corresponds to the distribution of ponderosa pine. Lewis's Woodpecker also inhabits other wooded ecosystems, including open riparian areas with cottonwood trees, and logged or burned pine forests. In winter, Lewis's Woodpeckers range westward to the Pacific coast and south to Baja California, typically frequenting oak woodlands and orchards.
Lewis's Woodpecker Range Map

The diet of Lewis's Woodpeckers varies by seasonal and geographic availability. In general, they eat mostly insects in spring and summer. Unlike many other woodpeckers, Lewis's Woodpeckers do not drill into trees for wood-boring insects, but rather glean ants, beetles, grasshoppers, and other insects from the surface of vegetation, or catch them in flight. Lewis's Woodpeckers sometimes even feed on insects over water and open fields, in the company of swifts and swallows. In fall and winter, they consume mostly acorns, other nuts, and fruit, including cultivated almonds, apples, peaches, and cherries. When acorns make up a significant portion of their diet, Lewis's Woodpeckers ingest large quantities of grit to assist in digestive processing.

Lewis's Woodpeckers commonly collect acorns or other tree nuts and store them for future consumption. They usually pick acorns from trees, not from the ground, wedge the acorns firmly into a suitable crack, and hammer them open with their bills. Then the woodpeckers extract the edible pieces and eat them immediately or store them in cracks in tree bark or desiccated utility poles. Unlike Acorn Woodpeckers (M. formicivorus), close relatives that are also well known for storing acorns, Lewis's Woodpeckers do not drill holes in trees specifically for storage. Though they often forage together, Lewis's Woodpeckers aggressively defend their food stores from each other, and from several other woodpecker species. Lewis's Woodpeckers also periodically turn and reposition their stored acorn pieces, perhaps retarding decay and fungal growth.

Both sexes excavate nest holes, usually in dead or decaying trees, including those that have burned; the species also often reuses old woodpecker holes. Nest cavities are approximately 1 foot deep, with a bed of wood chips about 3–4 inches deep on the bottom.

Clutches usually include six or seven eggs. Males incubate eggs and brood young at night; both sexes do so during daylight. Multiple Lewis's Woodpecker pairs sometimes nest in very close proximity to each other—even in the same tree. In a single case, five adult Lewis's Woodpeckers have been observed at a single nest, with most of them feeding young. This case suggests the possibility that the species may engage in cooperative breeding, a behavior well documented among Acorn Woodpeckers but very rare among birds in general.

Description: One of the larger woodpeckers in North America. Length approximately 10–11 inches. Adults have glossy greenish-black backs, wings, and tail. Head is rounded and shows the same black color surrounding a red face. Nape and upper breast are silver-gray; belly is pink. Juveniles are dark overall, with variable degrees of brown, dark gray, and black, with little or no red and pink coloration. Unlike other woodpeckers, Lewis's Woodpeckers fly with slow, crow-like wingbeats and frequent glides.

Voice: Less vocal than other woodpeckers. Alarm call is a simple squeak, monosyllabic among males and bisyllabic among females. Males also issue a loud “churr,” mostly in courtship, and a descending chatter. Drumming is a simple roll on resonant poles or trees, sometimes with a few slower beats at the end, as with sapsuckers.


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