| Gila woodpecker | |
|---|---|
 | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Piciformes |
| Family: | Picidae |
| Genus: | Melanerpes |
| Species: | M. uropygialis |
| Binomial name | |
| Melanerpes uropygialis (Baird, 1854) | |
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The Gila woodpecker (Melanerpes uropygialis) is a medium-sized woodpecker of the desert regions of the southwestern United States and western Mexico. In the U.S., they range through southeastern California, southern Nevada, Arizona, and New Mexico.
The back and wings of this bird are spotted and barred with a black and white zebra-like pattern. The neck, throat, belly and head are greyish-tan in color. The male has a small red cap on the top of the head. Females and juveniles are similar, but both lack the red cap of the adult male. White wing patches are prominent in flight. The dark tail has white bars on the central tail feathers. The birds range from 8–10 in (20–25 cm) in length.
This woodpecker's voice is a rolling churr sound. It also makes a yip yip yip sound and a kee-u, kee-u, kee-u sound. Its drum is long and steady.
This woodpecker's habitat consists of low desert scrub typical of the Sonoran Desert, as well as arroyos (washes) and small towns. [2]
They build nests in holes made in saguaro cacti [3] or mesquite trees. Cavities excavated by these woodpeckers in saguaro cacti (known as a "boot" [4] ) are later used by a variety of other species, including the elf owl. [5] There, they typically lay 3–4 white eggs, although as many as 6 [6] or 7 [7] have been noted. 2–3 broods are laid a year. Both sexes incubate and feed eggs. [6]
As a woodpecker, its diet is composed greatly of insects, which it gains from drilling into bark. [7] Gila woodpeckers are omnivorous, and do take fruits, nectar, seeds, as well as lizards, eggs, worms, and even young chicks of small birds. [6] They are even known to hang on human placed hummingbird feeders and sip up the nectar. [4]
The IUCN rates the species as least concern. [8] It is an endangered species in California, where populations have suffered notably. Arizona populations remain strong. The effects of climate change could severely reduce available habitat. [9]
The red-headed woodpecker is a mid-sized woodpecker found in temperate North America. Its breeding habitat is open country across southern Canada and the east-central United States. It is rated as least concern on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)'s Red List of Endangered species, having been down-listed from near threatened in 2018.
The acorn woodpecker is a medium-sized woodpecker, 21 cm (8.3 in) long, with an average weight of 85 g (3.0 oz).
The red-bellied woodpecker is a medium-sized woodpecker of the family Picidae. It breeds mainly in the eastern United States, ranging as far south as Florida and as far north as Canada. Though it has a vivid orange-red crown and nape it is not to be confused with the red-headed woodpecker, a separate species of woodpecker in the same genus with an entirely red head and neck that sports a solid black back and white belly. The red-bellied earns its name from the pale reddish blush of its lower underside.
The hooded oriole is a medium-sized New World oriole. The male of this species ranges in color from a bright orange to a paler yellow, with a black back, face, tail and bib, with the wing containing two white bars. The female is more of an olive color with some yellow accents.
The red-cockaded woodpecker is a woodpecker endemic to the southeastern United States.
The red-crowned woodpecker is a resident breeding bird from southwestern Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Venezuela, the Guianas and Tobago.
The elf owl is a small grayish-brown bird about the size of a sparrow found in the Southwestern United States, central Mexico, and the Baja California peninsula. It has pale yellow eyes highlighted by thin white "eyebrows" and a gray bill with a horn-colored tip. The elf owl frequently inhabits woodpecker holes in saguaro cacti; it also nests in natural tree cavities. It is nocturnal and feeds primarily on insects.
The ladder-backed woodpecker is a North American woodpecker.
Lewis's woodpecker is a large North American species of woodpecker which ornithologist Alexander Wilson named after Meriwether Lewis, one of the explorers who surveyed the areas bought by the United States of America as part of the Louisiana Purchase and discovered this species of bird.
The gilded flicker is a large-sized woodpecker of the Sonoran, Yuma, and eastern Colorado Desert regions of the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico, including all of Baja California, except the extreme northwestern region. Golden-yellow underwings distinguish the gilded flicker from the northern flicker found within the same region, which has red underwings.
Williamson's sapsucker is a medium-sized woodpecker belonging to the genus Sphyrapicus (sapsuckers).
The black-cheeked woodpecker is a resident breeding bird from southeastern Mexico south to western Ecuador.
Hoffmann's woodpecker is a resident breeding bird from southern Honduras south to Costa Rica. It is a common species on the Pacific slopes, locally as high as 2,150 m (7,050 ft). It is expanding on the Caribbean slope, aided by deforestation. This is further facilitated by its tendency to wander about outside the breeding season.
The lucifer sheartail or lucifer hummingbird is a medium-sized, 10 cm long, green hummingbird with a slightly curved bill and distinctive outward flare of its gorget feathers. Its habitat is in high-altitude areas of northern Mexico and southwestern United States. It winters in central Mexico.
The white-winged dove is a dove whose native range extends from the Southwestern United States through Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean. They are large for doves, and can be distinguished from similar doves by the distinctive white edge on their wings. They have a blue eyering, and red eyes. The plumage is brownish-gray to gray. Juveniles are duller in color, and have brown eyes. The call is likened to English phrase "who cooks for you". There are three subspecies. It was first described by George Edwards in 1743, and given its binomial name by Linnaeus in 1756. It was moved into the genus Zenaida in 1838.
The grey-breasted woodpecker is a species of bird in the family Picidae. It is endemic to the interior of southwestern Mexico.
The Cuban green woodpecker is a species of woodpecker in the family Picidae and tribe Melanerpini, known locally in Cuban Spanish as carpintero verde. It is the only species within the genus Xiphidiopicus and is one of two woodpeckers endemic to Cuba. It is the most widespread and common woodpecker in Cuba, inhabiting primarily woodlands, as well as dry and wet forests, pine forests and mangroves. The population of the Cuban green woodpecker is stable and its status is listed as "Least Concern".
The cactus wren is a species of wren endemic to the deserts of the southwestern United States and northern and central Mexico. It is the state bird of Arizona, and the largest wren in the United States. Its plumage is brown, with black and white spots as markings. It has a distinctive white eyebrow that sweeps to the nape of the neck. The chest is white, whereas the underparts are cinnamon-buff colored. Both sexes appear similar. The tail, as well as flight feathers, are barred in black and white. Their song is a loud raspy chirrup; akin in the description of some ornithologists to the sound of a car engine that will not start. It is well-adapted to its native desert environment, and the birds can meet their water needs from their diet which consists chiefly of insects, but also of some plant matter. The cactus wren is a poor flier and generally forages for food on the ground. Ornithologists generally recognize seven subspecies, with the exact taxonomy under dispute.
The saguaro is a tree-like cactus species in the monotypic genus Carnegiea that can grow to be over 12 meters tall. It is native to the Sonoran Desert in Arizona, the Mexican state of Sonora, and the Whipple Mountains and Imperial County areas of California. The saguaro blossom is the state wildflower of Arizona. Its scientific name is given in honor of Andrew Carnegie. In 1994, Saguaro National Park, near Tucson, Arizona, was designated to help protect this species and its habitat.
A saguaro boot is the hard shell of callus tissue, heavily impregnated with lignin, that a saguaro cactus creates to protect the wound created by a bird's nesting house. The bird pecks through the cactus skin, then excavates downward to hollow out a space for its nest. When the saguaro dies, its soft flesh rots, but its woody infrastructure lasts much longer. So does the hollowed-out callus whose roughly boot-like shape gives it the name of "saguaro boot."
Cavities in saguaro cactuses in the Southwest are common. Both gilded flickers and Gila woodpeckers make these cavities for nesting, but they often choose different locations on the cactus.
Although they do not use them immediately, waiting first for the sap to harden, Gila Woodpeckers excavate cavities in cacti and trees as nesting sites.
