Montana Outdoors March/April 2022 Full Issue

OUTDOORS PORTRAIT

Lewis’s Woodpecker Melanerpes lewis By Sneed B. Collard III

SCIENTIFIC NAME Melanerpes is Greek for “black creeper,” referring to the bird’s dark coloration and the way it creeps around tree trunks searching for insects, while lewis derives from explorer Meriwether Lewis, the first westerner to describe the bird.

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BRETT SWAIN

couple of years ago, my son and I went hiking with University of Montana biologist Dick Hutto into the 14year-old Black Mountain burn area south of Missoula. Our mission? To see and photograph a Williamson’s sapsucker nest, and on this bright, sunny day we had no trouble finding one. With their dead trees and abundant insect life, burns are known to attract woodpecker species. As we walked, we also saw northern flickers, and hairy and downy woodpeckers. Suddenly, a bird with a dark back and pink breast flashed by us and landed on a nearby snag. We all looked at each other, astonished. It was a bird none of us had expected, but perhaps we should have. This, after all, was one of Montana’s most surprising species: the Lewis’s woodpecker.

SOUND Lewis’s woodpeckers make a variety of harsh or buzzy, often repeating, calls. These range from almost crowlike squawks to squeakier, shorter pips similar to those of hairy and downy woodpeckers. In contrast to most other woodpeckers, the Lewis’s is a weak drummer, and according to some scientists it may often use vocalizations in lieu of drumming to advertise for mates.

HABITAT University of Montana avian ecologist Megan Fylling, who has studied Lewis’s woodpeckers extensively, describes their habitat as “big snags (cavities, perches) with an open canopy and a shrubby understory.” This primarily includes open ponderosa pine and mature, riparian cottonwood stands APPEARANCE with plenty of dead or partially dead trees. Lewis’s woodpeckers sport a “watermelon” As my son and I discovered with Dick Hutto, color scheme unique among North American however, they will move into burn areas woodpeckers. A saturated pink, almost red, once the dead trees have softened and a breast and face contrast sharply with a dark healthy shrub layer has grown up. greenish back, wings, and head that can look black in shaded or overcast conditions. A styl- FEEDING ish silver collar keeps the bird properly dressed Lewis’s woodpeckers glean insects from for all occasions. At just under 11 inches long, trees and the ground, eat fruit when it is the Lewis’s fits solidly into the “medium- available, and often cache nuts and seeds in sized” bird category, but it is larger than most cracks and crevices for later use. One thing U.S. woodpeckers. Juveniles usually lack the that sets the Lewis’s apart from other woodstunning pink coloration of adults. peckers is its reliance on hawking, or flycatching. A Lewis’s will perch on a branch Sneed B. Collard III is a writer in Missoula. and make repeated sallies to catch flying

insects. “They have broad wings and are very maneuverable in the air, which allows them to catch their insect prey,” Fylling explains. The bird’s extra-wide “gape” (beak opening) also aids in prey capture. BREEDING Unlike most woodpeckers, Lewis’s usually cannot drill and excavate entirely new nesting holes for themselves. They can enlarge and “clean up” a cavity but rely on natural cavities or those made by other species. Males and females both incubate eggs and contribute about equally to raising their young. They usually produce one brood of six or seven chicks per breeding season. MIGRATION Year-round populations of Lewis’s woodpeckers inhabit forested, mountainous areas of the West Coast and most southwestern states. In Montana, the species spends only the breeding season here, arriving in May and migrating south by the end of September. CONSERVATION The Lewis’s woodpecker has shown population declines in many areas, making it a species of concern. Its particular need for mature, rotten trees leaves it vulnerable to human activities such as salvage logging, firewood collecting, and cattle grazing. Insecticide use and land clearing may also harm populations. MONTANA OUTDOORS | MARCH-APRIL 2022 | 45