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Nuttall's Woodpecker | Dryobates nuttallii
Nuttalls specht | Carpintero californiano
Nuttall's Woodpecker is a small black-and-white woodpecker of the oak country of California. In the guide area it occurs only in north-western Baja California, in oak woodland, riparian woodland and scrub with scattered trees. There its range meets that of Ladder-backed Woodpecker, which lives in drier country.
Voice
A short, dry pitik, often repeated as the bird works through an oak, and a rolling rattle, prrrrrt, mainly during encounters between neighbours. Both sexes drum in fairly long rolls, mainly from late winter into spring.
Recording: Paul Marvin — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · converted to mono · xeno-canto
Identification
18–20 cm. Back barred black and white, with a solid black upper part below the nape. Head black with white stripes above and below the eye; the black cheek stripe is broad. Underparts white, with black spots on the sides of the breast and fine black bars on the flanks. Outer tail feathers white with black bars. The male has red on the hindcrown and nape, the female an all-black crown.
Confusion species
Ladder-backed Woodpecker Dryobates scalaris has a back barred white right to the top, a whiter head with narrower black stripes and drab buffish underparts; in the male the red extends further forward over the crown. Hybrids between the two occur in northern Baja California. Hairy Woodpecker Leuconotopicus villosus is larger and has a white stripe down the centre of the back instead of bars. Acorn Woodpecker Melanerpes formicivorus has a plain black back and a black, white and red head.
Habitat
Oak woodland and open country with oaks, riparian woodland with willows, cottonwoods and sycamores, and chaparral with scattered trees, in valleys and hills up into the lower mountains. It eats mainly insects and larvae from bark and twigs, supplemented with fruit and seeds. The nest hole is excavated in dead wood of a willow, cottonwood, sycamore or oak.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of Mexico and Central America.
Range and movements
In the guide area only in north-western Baja California, from the border at Tijuana and Tecate south along the Pacific side to beyond Ensenada and the foothills of the Sierra San Pedro Mártir. Outside the guide area in California, west of the Sierra Nevada and the deserts.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
In oak woodland and along dry riverbeds in the Valle de Guadalupe and around Tecate, and in oak woodland on the slopes of the Sierra Juárez. The dry pitik often gives the bird away before it is seen.
Conservation status
Not threatened. In the guide area confined to a small area, where oak and riparian woodland are giving way to farming and building.
Scientific name
Dryobates nuttallii | (Gambel, 1843)
Gambel described the species in 1843 as Picus Nuttalii; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Dryobates was introduced in 1826 by Boie. Dryobates is Greek, from druos 'woodland, tree' and batēs 'walker': the bird that works its way over timber. nuttallii honours the English botanist and ornithologist Thomas Nuttall (1786–1859), who worked for many years in North America. The specimen the first description was based on came from near Los Angeles, California.