Ladder-backed Woodpecker

Picoides scalarisOrder: PASSERIFORMESFamily: Woodpeckers (Picidae)

General

Ladder-backed Woodpecker: Small woodpecker with black-and-white barred upperparts, shoulders, and wings, buff-gray underparts with black spots, buff-gray face, red crown, and black forehead, nape, rump, and tail. Female lacks red crown.

Range and Habitat

Ladder-backed Woodpecker: Breeds from southwestern U.S. south to British Honduras. Found in wooded canyons, cottonwood groves, pine and pine oak woodlands, desert scrub, and desert grasslands dominated by mesquite.

Listen to Call

Voice Text

"pik"

Interesting Facts

The Ladder-backed Woodpecker was first described in 1829 by Johann Georg Wagler, a German herpetologist.

Although it is restricted to desert and arid environments in the United States, it is found in pinelands in Central America.

This woodpecker was once called the Cactus Woodpecker.

A group of woodpeckers has many collective nouns, including a "descent", "drumming", and "gatling" of woodpeckers.

Author

Gary Owen Dick

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Bird Call Credits: The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Martyn Stewart, http://www.naturesound.org, Redmond, Washington USA. The reuse or copying of bird calls in this database is strictly forbidden.

Ladder-backed Woodpecker

Ladder-backed Woodpecker: Small woodpecker with black-and-white barred upperparts, shoulders, and wings, underparts are buff-gray with black spots, buff-gray face, red crown, and black forehead, nape, rump, and tail. Outer tail feathers are white barred. Bill, legs and feet are black.

● Song: "pik"

● Foraging & Feeding: Ladder-backed Woodpecker: Eats insects and cactus fruit; forages on tree trunks, limbs, and sometimes on the ground.

● Breeding & nesting: Ladder-backed Woodpecker: Two to seven white eggs are laid in a cavity nest made of bark chips, usually 3 to 30 feet above the ground in a dead tree or branch. Eggs are incubated for 13 days by both parents.

● Similar species: Ladder-backed Woodpecker: Nuttall's Woodpecker has black ear patches bordered by white, cleaner white breast, and fewer spots on flanks. Downy and Hairy woodpeckers have solid white backs and lack spots on breasts and flanks.

Flight Pattern

Series of rapid shallow wing beats alternating with short glides.

Ladder-backed Woodpecker Breeding Male Body Illustration

● Range & Habitat: Ladder-backed Woodpecker: Breeds from southwestern U.S. south to British Honduras. Found in wooded canyons, cottonwood groves, pine and pine oak woodlands, desert scrub, and desert grasslands dominated by mesquite.

^BreedingMonogamous

^Population

^MigrationNonmigratory

^Weight1.1 Ounces

Field Guide to Birds of North America