Audubon's Birds/BIRDSVER1_3.BIN/dp/0082/00820.txt

Text File | 1992-08-27 | 22KB | 328 lines

$Unique_ID{BRD00820}
$Pretitle{}
$Title{The Golden-winged Woodpecker}
$Subject{Picinae; Picus; Colaptes; auratus; Golden-winged Woodpecker; Northern
Flicker; Yellowhammer}
$Journal{Birds of America:  Volume IV}
$Volume{Vol. 4:282-289}
$Family{Picinae}
$Genus{Picus; Colaptes}
$Species{auratus}
$Common_Name{Golden-winged Woodpecker; Northern Flicker; Yellowhammer}
$Log{
Plate CCLXXIII*00445P1.scf,41080026.aud
Bird Call*41080026.aud
Family*00423.txt
Genus*00424.txt
Larynx Figures*0044501.scf
Figures 1 & 2*0044502.scf}

            (C) (P) Library of Natural Sounds; Cornell Laboratory
       of Ornithology 1990-91, 1992; Ithaca, N.Y., All rights reserved.
       Portions copyright (c) Creative Multimedia Corp., 1990-91, 1992

                       B I R D S   O F   A M E R I C A .

                    By John James Audubon, F. R. SS. L. & E.

                   ------------------------------------------
                                   VOL.  IV.
                        --------------------------------


                         THE GOLDEN-WINGED WOODPECKER.
           [Northern Flicker or Yellowhammer (see also Red-shafted
                    Woodpecker).  State Bird of Alabama.]


                              PICUS AURATUS, Linn.
                              [Colaptes auratus.]


                       PLATE CCLXXIII.--MALE and FEMALES.


     It is generally agreeable to be in the company of individuals who are
naturally animated and pleasant.  For this reason, nothing can be more
gratifying than the society of Woodpeckers in the forests.  To prove this to
you, kind reader, I shall give you a full account of the habits of the
Golden-winged Woodpecker.
     This species, which is usually called Pique-bois jaune by the French
settlers in Louisiana, and receives the name of High-holder, Yucker, and Flicker
in other parts of the Union, being seldom or never graced with the epithet
Golden-winged, employed by naturalists, is one of the most lively of our birds,
and is found over the whole of the United States.
     No sooner has spring called them to the pleasant duty of making love, as it
is called, than their voice, which, by the way, is not at all disagreeable to
the ear of man, is heard from the tops of high decayed trees, proclaiming with
delight the opening of the welcome season.  Their note at this period is
merriment itself, as it imitates a prolonged and jovial laugh, heard at a
considerable distance.  Several males pursue a female, reach her, and, to prove
the force and truth of their love, bow their heads, spread their tail, and move
sidewise, backwards and forwards, performing such antics, as might induce any
one witnessing them, if not of a most morose temper, to join his laugh to
theirs.  The female flies to another tree, where she is closely followed by one,
two, or even half a dozen of these gay suitors, and where again the same
ceremonies are gone through.  No fightings occur, no jealousies seem to exist
among these beaux, until a marked preference is shewn to some individual, when
the rejected proceed in search of another female.  In this manner all the
Golden-winged Woodpeckers are soon happily mated.  Each pair immediately proceed
to excavate the trunk of a tree, and finish a hole in it sufficient to contain
themselves and their young.  They both work with great industry and apparent
pleasure.  Should the male, for instance, be employed, the female is close to
him, and congratulates him on the removal of every chip which his bill sends
through the air.  While he rests, he appears to be speaking to her on the most
tender subjects, and when fatigued, is at once assisted by her.  In this manner,
by the alternate exertions of each, the hole is dug and finished.  They caress
each other on the branches, climb about and around the tree with apparent
delight, rattle with their bill against the tops of the dead branches, chase all
their cousins the Red-heads, defy the Purple Grakles to enter their nest, feed
plentifully on ants, beetles and larvae, cackling at intervals, and ere two
weeks have elapsed, the female lays either four or six eggs, the whiteness and
transparency of which are doubtless the delight of her heart.  If to raise a
numerous progeny may contribute to happiness, these Woodpeckers are in this
respect happy enough, for they have two broods each season; and as this might
induce you to imagine Woodpeckers extremely abundant in our country, I may at
once tell you that they are so.
     Even in confinement, the Golden-winged Woodpecker never suffers its
naturally lively spirit to droop.  It feeds well, and by way of amusement, will
continue to destroy as much furniture in a day as can well be mended by a
different kind of workman in two.  Therefore, kind reader, do not any longer
believe that Woodpeckers are such stupid, forlorn, dejected and unprovided for
beings as they have hitherto been represented.  In fact, I know not one of the
species found in our extensive woods, that does not exhibit quite as much mirth
and gaiety as the present bird.  They are serviceable birds in many points of
view, and therefore are seldom shot at, unless by idlers; their flesh, moreover,
not being very savoury.  They have ample range, and wherever they alight, there
is to be found the food to which they at all times give decided preference.
     The flight of this species is strong and prolonged, being performed in a
straighter manner than that of any other of our Woodpeckers.  They propel
themselves by numerous beats of the wings, with short intervals of sailing,
during which they scarcely fall from the horizontal.  Their migrations, although
partial, as many remain even in the middle districts during the severest
winters, are performed under night, as is known by their note and the whistling
of their wings, which are heard from the ground, although by no means so
distinctly as when they fly from a tree or from the earth, when suddenly
alarmed.  When passing from one tree to another on wing, they also fly in a
straight line, until within a few yards of the spot on which they intend to
alight, when they suddenly raise themselves a few feet, and fasten themselves to
the bark of the trunk by their claws and tail.  If they intend to settle on a
branch, which they as frequently do, they do not previously rise; but in either
case, no sooner has the bird alighted, if it be not pursued or have suspicions
of any object about it, than it immediately nods its head, and utters its
well-known note, "Flicker."  It easily moves sidewise on a small branch, keeping
itself as erect as other birds usually do; but with equal ease does it climb by
leaps along the trunks of trees or their branches, descend, and move sidewise or
spirally, keeping at all times its head upwards, and its tail pressed against
the bark as a support.
     On the ground, where it frequently alights, it hops with great ease.  This,
however, it does merely to pick up a beetle, a caterpillar, a grain of corn
dropt by a squirrel from the ear in the fields, or to enable it to examine the
dead roots of trees, or the side of a prostrate log, from which it procures ants
and other small insects.  It is also fond of various fruits and berries.
Apples, grapes, persimons and dogwood berries seem quite agreeable to it, and it
does not neglect the young corn of the farmer's field.  Even poke-berries or
huckle-berries answer its purpose at times, and during winter it is a frequenter
of the corn-cribs.
     In this species, as in a few others, there is a singular arrangement in the
colouring of the feathers of the upper part of the head, which I conceive it
necessary for me to state, that it may enable persons better qualified than
myself to decide as to the reasons of such arrangement.  The young of this
species frequently have the whole upper part of the head tinged with red, which
at the approach of winter disappears, when merely a circular line of that colour
is to be observed on the hind part, becoming of a rich silky vermilion tint.
The Hairy, Downy and Red-c