California Scrub Jay

(Originally sent as as email, December 2016)

On a late 2016 visit to Lake Solano Park we spotted a scrub-jay perched in a tree along the picnic area.

Only last year the birding guidebooks listed this species as the Western Scrub-Jay, Aphelocoma californica. The AOU committee voted to grant full species status to our coastal subspecies, which is now the California Scrub-Jay. Likewise, the subspecies seen in the interior and parts of the southwest was also elevated to full species status, namely Woodhouse's Scrub-Jay, Aphelocoma woodhouseii. See Recent Checklist Changes for details and range maps of the 2 species.

Interesting to note that older books listed the 2 groups as separate species, both without the name "scrub-jay", so we had the California Jay and Woodhouse's Jay, along with 2 other Aphelocoma species, the Florida Jay (now Florida Scrub-Jay) and the Santa Cruz Jay (now Island Scrub Jay). These 4 species are quite similar in appearance. The Woodhouse Scrub-Jay blue color is less striking, and it lacks the incomplete blue collar that borders the white bib.

The incomplete blue collar is seen better in a side view, taken at Bodega Bay a few years ago:

Cheers,

Len

Nuttall's Woodpecker

Went to Lake Solano Park 11/10/2016 with a new camera, the Panasonic Lumix GX8. Tough job switching to a different brand, as the Lumix GX8 has so many features it will take me months to figure it out. Our very first bird was a female Nuttall's Woodpecker, Picoides nuttallii. She moved upward and around the trunk searching the bark for insects, kind of like a Brown Creeper. Nuttall's WP is a California near-endemic, with a range that includes a bit of southern Oregon and northern Baja California.

The genus Picoides includes the closely related Ladder-backed Woodpecker of the southwest, whose range includes southeast California, with minimal overlap with the Nuttall's. These are small woodpeckers at 7", barely larger than our often-seen Downy Woodpecker. The other local Picoides species is the Hairy Woodpecker, a larger version of the Downy.

You can be pretty sure of your identification of Nuttall's if you see a "laddered" black-and-white pattern of horizontal bars on the back of a small woodpecker in California. If you are in southeast California, say Kern County, you can tell it from the Ladder-backed Woodpecker by the large expanse of black on the upper back of Nuttall's, as shown in the next photo. There is more black on the face of Nuttall's (narrower white stripes) and the white bars on the back are said to be more narrow. Nuttall's also has a characteristic rattle call, which frequently helps you locate one. Note the zygodactyl foot. Normally the 4th toe is positioned toward the rear, but is often brought a bit forward (horizontal) for a better grip.

Another shot of the female Nuttall's. Note the tiny bill, as seen also on the Downy Woodpecker, Picoides pubescens. The 2 species are closely related, and occasionally hybridize.

The laddered back pattern is a common feature of many woodpecker species, and is present on the female Williamson's Sapsucker, Golden-fronted WP, Gilded WP, and the American Three-toed Woodpecker, among others.

As with many woodpecker species, the male Nuttall's has some red on or near the crown, as seen on this one from Lake Solano a some years back on a Rich Stallcup trip:

One last shot of the male seen on a tree in the parking lot at Las Gallinas, Jan 2008.

Taxonomy note: Picus was a roman mythological figure, "god of the forests" who was transformed into a woodpecker by a sorceress (Beletsky, Birds of the World). The name is the basis for the order Picaformes, which includes not only the woodpeckers (family Picadae), but also Barbets, Toucans, Jacamars, and Honey Guides.