Species: Melanerpes lewis

Lewis Woodpecker

Species

Birds

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Species of concern in the Puget Sound watershed

Terrestrial vertebrates: birds

Encyclopedia of Puget Sound

Classification

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Craniata

Class

Aves

Order

Piciformes

Family

Picidae

Genus

Melanerpes

NatureServe

Source:
ELEMENT_GLOBAL.2.106409

Classification

Other Global Common Names

Carpintero de Lewis - pic de Lewis

Informal Taxonomy

Animals, Vertebrates - Birds - Other Birds

Formal Taxonomy

Animalia - Craniata - Aves - Piciformes - Picidae - Melanerpes - Often has been placed in the monotypic genus ASYNDESMUS (AOU 1983).

Ecology and Life History

Short General Description

Medium sized woodpecker, 26-28 cm in length (Tobalske 1997). Head, back, wings, and tail are greenish black. Underside with prominent silvery gray collar on upper breast and pinkish or salmon red lower breast and belly. Face is dark red. Juveniles more brownish black on back, lacking extensive gray, red, and pink coloration of adults (but highly variable).

Migration

true - true - true - Populations in the northern half of the breeding range move southward for winter; present year-round in rest of breeding range although some birds migrate out. Movements likely vary in magnitude from year to year, probably in relation to food availability. Nomadic flocks have been observed in fall and winter (Tobalske 1997; see also Hadow 1973).

Non-migrant

true

Locally Migrant

true

Food Comments

Feeds on adult emergent insects (e.g., ants, beetles, flies, grasshoppers, tent caterpillars, mayflies) in summer, ripe fruit and nuts in fall and winter. Opportunistic and may respond to insect outbreaks and grasshopper swarms by increasing breeding densities. Unlike other woodpeckers, does not bore for insects but will flycatch and glean insects from tree branches or trunks; also drops from perch to capture insects on the ground. Especially favors acorns and commercial nuts and fruit in fall and winter, and caches food in natural crevices such as tree bark and dessication cracks in utility poles, tailoring food to fit crevices. Also eats huckleberry, twinberry, currant, mountain ash and chokecherries (Bock 1970, Tobalske 1997). In some areas, wintering birds rely more on insects than on cached food (Hadow 1973).

Reproduction Comments

Life-long pair bond. Clutch size is five to nine (usually six to seven). Incubation, by both sexes, lasts 13-14 days. Young can fly 28-34 days after hatching (Terres 1980, Ehrlich et al. 1988).

Ecology Comments

May compete with acorn woodpeckers (MELANERPES FORMICIVORUS) for acorn crop (Terres 1980). Will aggressively defend food caches from all comers. Territorial in immediate space around nest sites toward Red-headed Woodpeckers (MELANERPES ERYTHROCEPHALUS) and other Lewis's Woodpeckers; however, may nest semi-gregariously where several nest cavities are close together (Bock 1970, Bock et al. 1971, Tobalske 1997). Breeding season territories reported to vary between 1 and 6 hectares in the Blue Mountains of Washington and Oregon (Thomas et al. 1979). Foraging home ranges broadly overlap and large numbers of birds may forage together where there is a local abundance of food (Tobalske 1997). Local areas of higher abundance occur in northern Arizona, Washington, Oregon and northern California in summer (Sauer et al. 1997); California, Arizona and northern New Mexico in winter (Sauer et al. 1996).

Length

Weight

116

Conservation Status

NatureServe Global Status Rank

Global Status Last Reviewed

2001-02-14

Global Status Last Changed

2001-02-14

Distribution

Conservation Status Map

Global Range

FG - 20,000-2,500,000 square km (about 8000-1,000,000 square miles) - FG - BREEDING: southern British Columbia, southwestern Alberta, Montana, southwestern South Dakota and northwestern Nebraska south to south-central California, central Arizona, southern New Mexico, and eastern Colorado; locally distributed and sporadic within range (AOU 1983, Tobalske 1997). NON-BREEDING: mainly from northern Oregon, southern Idaho, central Colorado, south-central Nebraska south irregularly to northern Mexico, southern New Mexico, and western Texas (AOU 1983).

Global Range Code

Global Range Description

20,000-2,500,000 square km (about 8000-1,000,000 square miles)

ELEMENT_GLOBAL.2.106409