(Past-President and current Director, Jackson Shedd, provides information on December’s highlighted species [Ed.])  

Lewis’s Woodpecker (Melanerpes lewis)

This close relative of our more common and resident Acorn Woodpecker is one of eleven woodpecker species that are known to regularly occur in Butte County (a twelfth, the Red-naped Sapsucker, may possibly occur regularly during winter months in low numbers).  With its glossy dark-green upperparts, red face, white collar, and rosy pink belly, the Lewis’s Woodpecker is surely a contender for North America’s most beautiful Picid.  This species can be readily told in flight from other woodpeckers because it does not undulate in the characteristic way its cousins do.  Instead, it flies steadily and in more of a straight line.  Depending on how far away you are (or how fast you’re driving), a Lewis’s Woodpecker can be easily passed off as a crow if you aren’t paying attention!

This species is most likely to be encountered in winter here when populations turn up in the surrounding foothills and adjacent valley edge. Known for their erratic migration habits, this woodpecker’s movements are unpredictable. They may be numerous one year and uncommon to scant the next.  However, populations inhabiting the inner Coast Range in Glenn County, for example, seem to be fairly reliable year around, as they apparently nest in that area as well. During the cooler months of the year they can be found in Butte County in foothill woodland and Blue Oak savannah where they coexist with their cousin the Acorn Woodpecker, as well as Downy and Nuttall’s Woodpeckers, Red-breasted Sapsucker, and Northern Flicker.  In the aforementioned habitats Lewis’s Woodpeckers sally out from perches to catch insects, not unlike a flycatcher. They also feed on the berries of mistletoe and compete with Acorn Woodpeckers for acorns, both resources being easily obtained from the oaks.  Like Acorns, Lewis’s Woodpeckers cache their acorn crops, but even though they are usually present in small to large groups, these woodpeckers defend independent caches rather than doing so in cooperation.  They also do not make granaries by drilling holes for storage the way Acorns do; they just find natural crevices.

Some Quick Facts:  This is the only North American bird named after Meriwether Lewis of the Lewis and Clark expedition (Capt. William Clark got the nutcracker. Apparently the grebe was named for John H. Clark, a mathematician!).

Conservation: On the Watch-list. Declines (based on Breeding Bird Surveys and Christmas Bird Counts) over the years are linked to competition with invasive European Starlings for nest sites and wildfire suppression.

Stats: Length: 10.75 in. Wingspan: 21 in. Weight: 4 oz (115 g).

Nesting: Clutch of 6-7 white eggs laid in excavated tree cavity. Male and female are sexually monomorphic and monogamous.

Voice: Generally silent, though it is known to make a high-pitched, squeaky, chattering call, usually around the nest.