These woodpeckers are significantly larger than Downy’s and have a noticeably larger beak. Hairy Woodpeckers are found throughout most of Arizona, though less common in southwestern parts of the state near the border to California. The answer is no, but they sure do look alike. You may be wondering if you’re looking at another Downy Woodpecker in this picture. Ladder-backed Woodpeckers were once known as “Cactus Woodpeckers” because they often prefer living in deserts and thorn forests where cacti are present. They commonly nest in dead trees, so if you want to attract a pair leave those dead trees in your yard alone. They aren’t commonly seen at suet feeders but they will readily eat mealworms, peanut butter, and black oil sunflower seeds when offered. Ladder-backed Woodpeckers are found mostly in parts of Central and Southern Arizona. Look for Ladder-backed Woodpeckers from late January to March when they are pairing up for breeding and more active. Ladder-backed Woodpecker Photo by: Bettina Arrigoni | CC 2.0 Males also will have a red patch on top of their heads.Ĥ. They’re only about the size of a sparrow and can be identified by their white spots on their backs and white underbellies. They love suet but also eat a variety of seeds like sunflower seeds, millet, and peanuts. Downy Woodpeckers are also very common at bird feeders many times being the first to visit a new feeder. and are the smallest species of woodpeckers in Arizona as well as North America. They are very common throughout almost all of the U.S. You can find these tiny woodpeckers in Northeast Arizona all year long since they do not migrate. Neat rows of holes in a sap-producing tree is a good indicator that a sapsucker is in the area. Look for them early in the breeding season (mid-May), and early in the morning when they are most active. Like other sapsuckers, they drink sap from trees like aspen, birch, or pine trees, but also feed on insects. They are very closely related to Yellow-bellied’s and were even thought to be the same species until 1983 when researchers discovered they were in fact two different species. The Red-naped Sapsucker can be found in Southern and Western Arizona in the Winter, and in the rest of the state during the breeding months (Spring and Summer). They’ll also fiercely guard these food caches from anything that tries to steal from them. They are obviously storing this food for a later date when food is more scarce. They jam them into these holes so tightly that other animals are unable to remove them. They’re known for drilling holes in trees called granaries and storing nuts in theme, as many as 50,000 nuts in some cases. Like mosts species of woodpecker they will at least occasionally visit suet feeders, but are more rare to than maybe a Downy. You can find them in oak or pine-oak forests where they eat acorns and a number of different insects. Acorn WoodpeckerĪcorn Woodpeckers have a very limited range in North America, and can only be found in parts of Central and Eastern Arizona. In the following list, we’ll learn a little about each one of Arizona’s woodpeckers! 1. The 12 species of woodpeckers in Arizona are the Lewis’s Woodpecker, Acorn Woodpecker, Gila Woodpecker, Williamson’s Sapsucker, Red-naped Sapsucker, American Three-toed Woodpecker, Downy Woodpecker, Ladder-backed Woodpecker, Hairy Woodpecker, Arizona Woodpecker, Northern Flicker, and the Gilded Flicker. At the end of the article I will also give you a few tips on how to attract woodpeckers to your yard. In this article we’ll take a look at each species and touch on where and when you might spot one in Arizona. There are as many as 22 species of woodpeckers in North America and you can find 12 of those woodpeckers in Arizona.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |