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Photo by Jim Bailey, Utah Nature Photography
Photo Copyright Jim Bailey
Ladder-backed Woodpecker
Dryobates scalaris
NatureServe conservation status
Global (G-rank): G5
State (S-rank): S2S3
External links
General information
The ladder-backed woodpecker, Picoides scalaris, is a resident (non-migratory) species that inhabits southeastern California, the southwestern United States, western Texas, western Oklahoma, much of Mexico, and parts of Central America. In Utah, the species is restricted to the Mojave Desert in the extreme southwestern corner of the state. The ladder-backed woodpecker is found in deserts and dry brushlands, as well as in pinon-juniper, pine-oak, and riparian woodlands.
Individuals feed primarily on insects and fruits, especially the fruits of cacti. A male mates with just one female, and a nest cavity is typically excavated in the trunk or branch of an agave tree. Four to five eggs are incubated, and both parents share nesting duties during the thirteen day incubation period. Both the male and the female continue to care for the helpless young after they hatch.
Species range
Resident from southern California, southern Nevada, southwestern Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, southeastern Colorado, southwestern Kansas, and western Oklahoma south through Texas, most of Mexico (including Baja California), and Belize; also locally in Honduras and northeastern Nicaragua.
Habitat
Deserts, arid scrub, riparian woodland, mesquite, scrub oak, pinyon-juniper woodland, pine-oak association, pine savanna, thickets, shade trees in towns and rural areas. Digs nest hole in rotted stub or in dead or dying branch of various trees, also in saguaro, agave, yucca, fence post, utility pole; nest 3-8 m above ground.
Food habits
Eats mainly larvae of wood-boring beetles, other insects, and cactus fruits; forages in small trees and shrubs, also on ground (Terres 1980).
Reproductive characteristics
Clutch size usually is 4-5. Incubation, by both sexes, lasts about 13 days.
Threats or limiting factors
Decline possibly is related to mesquite and brush control (chaining, herbicides, bulldozing) (USFWS 1987).
References
- Biological and Conservation Database. 2000. Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, The Nature Conservancy, and the Association for Biodiversity Information.
- Ehrlich, P. R., D. S. Dobkin, and D. Wheye. 1988. The birder’s handbook[:] a field guide to the natural history of North American birds. Simon & Schuster, New York. xxx + 785 pp.
- Behle, W. H., Sorensen, E. D. and C. M. White. 1985. Utah birds: a revised checklist. Utah Museum of Natural History, Occasional Publication No. 4. Salt Lake City, UT.
