I saw this fine bird several times over the years when I have visited California. My most recent sighting were these two seen on Mount Hamilton. When flying, they take a few flaps of their wings and then drop a foot or so.
This bird is mostly black with a red cap. The white neck, throat, and forehead patches are distinctive identifiers. Its habitat is forested areas with oaks in the coastal areas and foothills of Oregon, California, and the southwestern United States, south through Central America to Colombia.
Acorn Woodpeckers, as their name implies, depend heavily on acorns for food. Acorns are such an important resource to the California populations that Acorn Woodpeckers may nest in the Fall to take advantage of the Autumn acorn crop, an uncommon behavior in birds. Although acorns are an important back-up food resource, these birds primarily feed on insects, sap, and fruit.
Their acorns are stored in small holes drilled especially for this purpose in “granaries” or “storage trees”— usually snags, dead branches, utility poles, or wooden buildings. Storage holes are always in non-living tree tissue, such as bark or dead limbs and are used year after year.
They are cooperative breeders, living and breeding in family groups of up to 15 individuals. Cooperative breeding, defined as more than two birds taking care of nestlings in the nest, is a relatively rare evolutionary trait that is thought to occur in only nine percent of bird species.
Walter Lantz is believed to have patterned the call of his cartoon character Woody Woodpecker on that of the Acorn Woodpecker, while basing his appearance on that of the Pileated Woodpecker, which has a prominent crest.
