Coming from a graphic design background, I have fond memories of design school class studies creating patterns in the strictly limited palette of black and white. It’s no surprise I have great fondness for the stunning graphic zebra pattern of the Ladder-backed Woodpecker’s back and wings. It almost takes my breath away when it arrives in our Aldea yard—which it rarely seems to do.
But today, just in time for the first day of the 2016 Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC), a female visited the seed cylinder feeder and also pecked at the bark in one of the juniper trees. I observed it at two different times today gorging on sunflower seeds. Truly an amazing pattern to its back that really contrasts with the junipers and other dull brown and yellow-beige dried grass winter tones in the yard right now. The females have a black head cap and the males have a distinctive red head cap. These are highly visible, easy-to-spot birds when they are out in the open.
Ladder-backed Woodpeckers are a year-round resident of most of New Mexico. Santa Fe is in the northern part of their range in the state, but the range does extend up into southeastern Colorado. Its name comes from the black and white striping that resembles ladder rungs. I think it one of the most dramatic of woodpeckers along with the Northern Flicker, which we also see and hear in Aldea regularly. This woodpecker was once called the Cactus Woodpecker.
A group of woodpeckers are collectively known by the nouns “descent”, “drumming”, or “gating” of woodpeckers.
Female Ladder-backed Woodpecker in Aldea. Click on photos to enlarge.
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