Williamson's sapsuckers, immature and adult, Bend, OR (photo by Pati Rouzer)
If you’re from Pennsylvania you may not realize we have few woodpecker species compared to the western states of California, Oregon and Washington.
Sixteen of North America’s 22 woodpecker species regularly occur in the Pacific states while only seven occur in Pennsylvania. Five of our species are also found out west though the yellow-bellied sapsucker is rare.
Let’s take a look at western woodpeckers compared to Pennsylvania’s.
| Western Woodpeckers (Pacific states) | Pennsylvania Woodpeckers | |||
| 1 | Williamson’s sapsucker | |||
| (Yellow-bellied sapsucker is rare) | Yellow-bellied sapsucker | |||
| 2 | Red-naped sapsucker | |||
| 3 | Red-breasted sapsucker | |||
| 4 | Lewis’ woodpecker | |||
| Red-headed woodpecker | ||||
| 5 | Acorn woodpecker | |||
| 6 | Gila woodpecker (California & southwest) | |||
| Red-bellied woodpecker | ||||
| 7 | American three-toed woodpecker (not in California) | |||
| 8 | Black-backed woodpecker | |||
| 9 | Downy woodpecker | Downy woodpecker | ||
| 10 | Nuttall’s woodpecker (California only) | |||
| 11 | Ladder-backed woodpecker (California & southwest) | |||
| 12 | Hairy woodpecker | Hairy woodpecker | ||
| 13 | White-headed woodpecker | |||
| 14 | Pileated woodpecker | Pileated woodpecker | ||
| 15 | Northern flicker (red-shafted) | Northern flicker (yellow-shafted) | ||
| 16 | Gilded flicker (California & Arizona) |
With the most habitat diversity and a lot of trees, California wins the prize in the western woodpecker tableau.
(photos by Pati Rouzer, Patty McGann, Andy Reago & Chrissy McLaren, Mick Thompson (Creative Commons licenses on Flickr), and by Steve Valasek)
I do like the paging photo presentation. The adult and immature on the same photo is a treasure. The only thing missing is relative size, eg I know the pileated woodpecker is huge and that the downy is quite small.