First breeding record of the white-headed woodpecker for Canada

Publication Type:

Journal Article

Authors:

Cooper, John K.

Source:

Canadian Field-Naturalist, The Ottawa Field-Naturalists' Club, Volume 83, Issue 3, p.276-277 (1969)

Call Number:

A69COO01IDUS

URL:

http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/89179#page/290/mode/1up

Keywords:

Picoides albolarvatus, White-headed Woodpecker

Abstract:

Based on three specimens from the Okanagan and Similkameen Valleys, the White-headed Woodpecker Dendrocopos albolarvatus is listed as casual in central-southern British Columbia. Although not recorded as a breeding species in British Columbia, this woodpecker has been recorded by Brown (1925) nesting near the international border in the "Mountains of Okanogan County" in central-northern Washington. On May 21, 1967, Louise V. Cooper sighted a male White-headed Woodpecker excavating a nest hole in a dead Douglas fir Pseudotsuga menziesii snag on lower Anarchist Mountain, three miles east of Osoyoos, B.C. On June 3 David L. Frost, Louise V. Cooper, John M. Cooper, and the writer revisited the nest site and observed the female woodpecker actively pushing chips from the nest cavity. On June 10 David L. Frost, John M. Cooper, and the writer again visited the area and found the female incubating four eggs. British Columbia is the only province in Canada in which the White-headed Woodpecker has been recorded and therefore the notes above constitute the first Canadian breeding record.