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White-headed Woodpecker - BirdForum Opus

Photo by revs45
Leavenworth, Washington, USA
Dryobates albolarvatus

Identification

24 cm (9½ in)

  • Black body
  • White wing patches
  • White head and throat

Male: has a red mark on back of his head

Variation

The two subspecies are supposedly weakly differentiated and differ mainly in length of bill.

Distribution

British Columbia south to the southern tip of California. Also in western Nevada and Idaho.

Taxonomy

Placed in genus Leuconotopicus by Gill and Donsker. Formerly in genus Picoides.

Subspecies

Photo by Forcreeks
Central Oregon, USA

There are 2 subspecies[1]:

  • D. a. albolarvatus:
  • D. a. gravirostris:
  • South West California (mountains of Los Angeles (San Gabriel Mts.) to San Diego region)

Habitat

Montane coniferous forests.

Behaviour

Breeding

They nest in dead trees; the eggs are incubated for 14 days and the young fledge after a further 26 days.

Diet

The diet includes insects, particularly ants, beetles and scale insects. They also eat pine seeds.

References

  1. Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, D. Roberson, T. A. Fredericks, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2016. The eBird/Clements checklist of birds of the world: v2016, with updates to August 2016. Downloaded from http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
  2. Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive (retrieved October 2016)
  3. Birds of North America online retrieved June 2018

Recommended Citation

External Links

GSearch checked for 2020 platform.1

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