White-Headed Woodpecker

Our son, Sam, has gotten into woodpeckers recently and discovered that we have white-headed woodpeckers in the San Gabriel Mountains above Los Angeles. I recall seeing a white-headed woodpecker at Camp Chawanakee, near Shaver Lake in the Sierras, many years ago when helping supervise a group of Boy Scouts going to summer camp there. Sam found some near the Chilao Visitor Center and I went up there today to see if I could find and photograph some. I saw three, one that I was unable to get a good photograph of and a male and a female that appeared to be together. 

They are found in the pine forests of western North America and are non-migratory. Both males and females have black bodies and white heads and white primary feathers that show in flight. Males have a red spot on the back of the head. There are two subspecies and we have the non-nominate subspecies in our mountains that have a longer bill and tail. The longer bill is an adaptation to help them get acorns out of the very large Coulter pinecones found in the Southern California mountains.  

Range of the white-head woodpecker from Birds of the World. 

I was able to attract the woodpeckers and other birds by turning on a small water spigot which they came to for water on a very warm day. An illustration of a male follows, from Birds of the World. The female is the same, but lacks the red spot on the back of the head.

Following are some of the photos I took today:

The female which I photographed on a tree and at the tap. 

The male which I was only able to photograph at the tap.