Illustration © David Allen Sibley.
Learn more about these drawings.
Text © Kenn Kaufman, adapted from
Lives of North American Birds
Photo: Pam Koch/Great Backyard Bird Count Participant
Lewis's Woodpecker
Melanerpes lewis
| Conservation status | Localized and erratic in occurrence, so populations are hard to monitor. Has disappeared from many former nesting areas. There are some indications of a continuing decline in population in recent years. |
|---|---|
| Family | Woodpeckers |
| Habitat | Scattered or logged forest, river groves, burns, foothills. Because of aerial foraging, needs open country in summer, with large trees for nest sites and foraging perches. Often in cottonwood groves, open pine-oak woods, burned or cut-over woods. Winter habitat chosen in autumn for food supply, usually groves of oaks, sometimes date palms, orchards of pecans, walnuts, almonds, fruit. |
Photo Gallery
Feeding Behavior
During spring and summer, forages mainly by catching insects in flight: sallying forth from a perch or circling high in air to catch flying insects, or swooping down to catch those on the ground. Also gleans some insects from tree surfaces, and takes small fruits in trees. During fall, harvests acorns or other nuts, breaks them into pieces by pounding with bill, then stores them in bark crevices or holes in trees, to feed on them during winter.
Eggs
6-7, sometimes 4-9. White. Incubation is by both sexes (with males incubating at night and part of day), 12-16 days. Young: Both parents bring back insects in bill to feed nestlings. Young leave nest 4-5 weeks after hatching, remain with parents for some time thereafter.
Young
Both parents bring back insects in bill to feed nestlings. Young leave nest 4-5 weeks after hatching, remain with parents for some time thereafter.
Diet
Mostly insects, nuts, fruits. Feeds on a wide variety of insects; also eats fruits and berries, plus acorns and other nuts.
Nesting
Pairs may mate for life, and may use the same nest site repeatedly. Displays (used in both aggression and courtship) include perching with wings spread, head lowered, neck feathers ruffed out; floating circular flight around nest tree. Nest site is cavity excavated in tree (tree or limb usually dead), sometimes in utility pole, at site apparently chosen by male. Height of nest varies, from 5' to well over 100' above ground, probably usually lower than 60'.
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- All Seasons - Common
- All Seasons - Uncommon
- Breeding - Common
- Breeding - Uncommon
- Winter - Common
- Winter - Uncommon
- Migration - Common
- Migration - Uncommon
Songs and Calls
Usually silent, but occasionally gives a low churring note.How climate change could affect this bird's range
In the broadest and most detailed study of its kind, Audubon scientists have used hundreds of thousands of citizen-science observations and sophisticated climate models to predict how birds in the U.S. and Canada will react to climate change.
Read more: climate.audubon.org
Each map is a visual guide to where a particular bird species may find the climate conditions it needs to survive in the future. We call this the bird’s “climatic range.”
The colors indicate the season in which the bird may find suitable conditions— blue for winter, yellow for summer (breeding), and green for where they overlap (indicating their presence year-round).
The darker the shaded area, the more likely it is the bird species will find suitable climate conditions to survive there.
The outline of the approximate current range for each season remains fixed in each frame, allowing you to compare how the range will expand, contract, or shift in the future.
The first frame of the animation shows where the bird can find a suitable climate today (based on data from 2000). The next three frames predict where this bird’s suitable climate may shift in the future—one frame each for 2020, 2050, and 2080.
You can play or pause the animation with the orange button in the lower left, or select an individual frame to study by clicking on its year.
Lewis's Woodpecker In the News More News
Audubon Mural Project
Glossy Ibis and Lewis’s Woodpecker by Kristy McCarthy and Pelumi Adegawa
Location: 3671 Broadway, New York, NY 10031
Birding
6 Other Birds (Beyond the Bunting) That Make People Go Nuts
They could be vagrants or they could be regulars—there's no wrong reason for getting stirred up about a bird.
