White-headed Woodpecker

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White-headed Woodpecker
The White-headed Woodpecker is an inconspicuous bird that is hard to find due to its silent habits. This woodpecker rarely taps or drums and vocalizes only around the nest. Its voice is a sharp pee-dink and a more prolonged pee-dee-dee-dink. It feeds by scaling bark off trees to reach the insects underneath. Although its bold black and white pattern is striking in flight, it provides excellent camouflage when the bird perches in a shady forest. The White-headed Woodpecker is black overall with a white head, throat and wing patch. The male has a red patch on its nape while the female lacks the red patch.

The White-headed Woodpecker consumes primarily pine seeds, during winter and early spring (60 percent of total diet) and insects and spiders during summer. It usually excavates a new nest hole each year and seems to prefer dead pines. This woodpecker nests in live and dead fir, oak and aspen, with nest holes usually about 8 feet above the ground.

The White-headed Woodpecker is a resident from extreme south-central British Columbia, northeastern Washington and Idaho, south to southern California and western Nevada. Some birds move down mountain slopes in winter. The White-headed Woodpecker prefers Ponderosa pine belts of the mountains and fir belts in the subalpine.
White-headed Woodpecker Range Map

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