Acorn Woodpeckers

What's wonderful about leaving the desert and visiting Arizona's mountain country in the summer - besides escaping the heat -  is the chance to see and hear different birds and wildlife.  If you spend any amount of time in one of the state's high elevation forests, you're guaranteed to hear the 'waak...waak...waak...' of the acorn woodpecker.  It won't take long to see a pair or triplet flying from tree to tree and hopping from limb to limb.

They tend to live in extended groups wherever oak trees are prevalent, picking and stashing the acorns by the thousands into holes bored into a pine tree's bark.  Most likely you'll see and hear them hammering at a branch in either this pursuit or in collecting insects for a meal.

These penguin-looking birds have been referred to as a 'troupe of wide-eyed clowns,' and a short time watching them might make you agree, especially because they're uniquely tolerant of our presence. Hopefully, a few pictures will give you a taste of both the acorn woodpecker's personality and its beauty.

A pair of acorn woodpeckers in a ponderosa pine tree in Prescott.

An acorn woodpecker in an acorn tree in Munds Park.

Female acorn woodpecker with acorn.  Note, her red cap is separated from her white forehead by a bar of black feathers.

Male acorn woodpecker with acorn.  Note his red cap meets his white forehead.

Male with clearly defined red cap, in Madera Canyon.

Pair of females in a nesting hole in a ponderosa pine tree.  Multiple males and females combine efforts to raise their young in these kinds of nests.

Male in a nest in a standing dead ponderosa pine, in Prescott.  He's got a beak full of insects, so acorns aren't his only diet.

Another shot of the male.

The same tree, a year later, with another male acorn woodpecker.  He's a bit shyer than the subject in last year's photo.

Close-up.

Acorn woodpecker.

Acorn woodpecker.

Male comically stretching for a view.

Raw peanuts attract several types of jays in the Prescott area.  It turns out this female likes them as much as acorns.

Got it!  And I got my lucky shot.

Male northern flicker in a Prescott forest.  Acorns are not the only woodpecker in the woods!

Female hairy woodpecker in Prescott.  Yet another woodpecker that calls northern Arizona home.  With time and luck, we'll take a look at all the state's varieties.