{"id":16491,"date":"2012-07-13T15:00:55","date_gmt":"2012-07-13T13:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thebirdersreport.com\/?p=4192"},"modified":"2019-12-22T22:26:54","modified_gmt":"2019-12-22T09:26:54","slug":"the-scarce-black-backed-woodpecker-drumming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/the-scarce-black-backed-woodpecker-drumming\/","title":{"rendered":"The Scarce Black-backed Woodpecker Drumming"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Black-backed Woodpecker Male<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n

Black-backed Woodpecker (Picoides arcticus) Male photos by Larry Jordan<\/p>\n

I arrived at Lassen Volcanic National Park around 7:00 a.m. It was a cool 48 degrees. I had taken the short drive to the park to search for a family of American Dippers sighted near the visitor center by a fellow birder a few days before. What I found was more than I could possibly hope for.<\/p>\n

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Black-backed Woodpecker Male<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n

I parked where I nearly always begin my day at Lassen Park, at the first turn out about 100 yards beyond the northern park entrance ranger station off highway 44. As I got out of my car, about fifty feet from Manzanita Lake, I heard the loud drumming of a woodpecker. Click on photos for full sized images.<\/p>\n

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Black-backed Woodpecker Male<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n

I didn’t know what species of woodpecker it was, but I knew it was just in the clearing on the other side of the road. I grabbed my bins, camera and camcorder and headed toward the hollow drumbeat. If not for the drumming, I would probably not have seen the Black-backed Woodpecker (Picoides arcticus), listed by authors of some field guides as “scarce,” by others as “uncommon to rare.”<\/p>\n

Note how well camouflaged this bird is atop a snag in its natural habitat of burned coniferous forest.<\/p>\n