Article and Text by Anne Auclair Moe
In May of 2023, there were reports on eBird, of a Lewis’s Woodpecker in one of Alberta’s National Park.
Excited and full of hope to find this special bird in Alberta, my friends and I left early in the morning and drove three hours to our destination.
In Canada, the Lewis’s woodpecker’s population is restricted to the southern interior of British Columbia, so to find this bird here was a thrill to say the least.
As soon as we arrived and started hiking, we were pleased to hear an unfamiliar, harsh and quick churr churr churr call from a tall dead tree. With the help of the Merlin Bird ID app, we were able to identify it. And there it was, a beautiful Lewis’s woodpecker! Soon enough, we had our cameras up shooting at not one, but two of them!
The first three photos were taken with my well loved, Canon 1DXII and Canon EF 100-400mmII lens. I chose to use an aperture of f7.1 has I was trying to get the whole bird in focus. I lowered the exposure time to 1/250 to get in as much light as possible and my ISO varied from 250 to 320 (I keep ISO on auto for shooting wildlife).
The Lewis’s woodpecker was named after Meriwether Lewis, an American explorer who first described it in 1805.
Their primary habitats are open ponderosa pine country, pine-oak woodlands, cottonwood groves and logged or burnt pine forests. These two seamed to be in their element in this burnt forest environment. And after spending some time observing them, we found their nest. Way up high in a dead tree.
With their pink belly, red face, dark green back and grey collar, the Lewis’s woodpeckers are one of the largest species of American woodpeckers and can measure up to 11 inches. Male and female are alike but the female is usually smaller in size. I tried to include photos that displayed their beautiful plumage.
Unlike most woodpeckers, the Lewis’s woodpecker flies like a crow, forages like a flycatcher, perches on branches similar to a songbird, and also feeds on nuts and berries. It was pretty neat to observe them cache food in cracks and holes of trees, collecting food for later days.
When breeding, the male will construct the nest in a cavity excavated in a dead tree branch. The female can lay between five and nine eggs, which they will both take turn to incubate. Mom during the day, and dad at night. The incubation is approximately twelve days. The hatchlings will stay in the nest for another four or five weeks before first flight. According to Audubon Field Guide, pairs may mate for life, and may use the same nest site repeatedly.
Of course, after finding the nest, we planned on returning to see the young ones at a later date. So in mid-July, we packed our cameras again to go back and visit our new friends. This time, I was equipped with my new mirrorless camera, Canon EOS R5. The light was very bright and the sun just behind the nest, which made it difficult for me to shoot with my new equipment.
We quickly found mom and dad flying in and out of the nest, feeding their baby. Never saw more than one head peeking out. Maybe we were a little early on returning?
My setting for the flight shot was f/7.1, 1/2000s with ISO of 800. The one of the nest was taken at f/7.1, 1/2500s, ISO 1250. I should have taken the time to adjust for a better quality photo but was waiting for a parent to fly in or out of the nest, to get a flight shot. The light was definitely difficult to navigate.
In late September, they typically leave their breeding habitat for warmer climates. They will sometimes winter as far as Mexico and return to breed again. Here’s hoping to see them again!
Did you know, a group of woodpeckers is often called a “drumming”, a “descent”, or a “gatling” of woodpeckers?
