Fab facts
Gila woodpeckers
Saguaro nest holes made by Gila woodpeckers are:
● Usually 9 to 16 inches deep with an entrance hole about 2 inches wide. Both male and females carve them. Female Gila woodpeckers lay three to five white eggs on the bare floor of the nest cavity. Both the male and the female incubate the eggs, and a pair may produce two or three broods of young a year.
● Safe places to raise young. Up high in their spiny fortress, they are out of reach of most predators. The thick saguaro tissue and water it contains surround the nests and make them cool in the day and warm at night. Likewise, on a hot summer day the temperature inside the hole is several degrees cooler than the outside air. In winter, the nest is warmer than the cold air outside.
● Provide nest sites for many other birds, including elf owls, kestrels, screech owls, ash-throated flycatchers and purple martins. At times, they may also serve as homes for snakes, lizards, rats or mice.
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Our local woodpeckers
Besides Gila woodpeckers, we have two other woodpecker species common to our area. The gilded flicker
is larger than the Gila woodpecker. Brown above, spotted black below, it has a black crescent across its chest, and the undersides of its wings and tail are golden. Gilded flickers also excavate nest cavities in saguaros, but usually these are located higher on the cactus than those drilled by Gila woodpeckers.
The ladder-backed woodpecker
is smaller than the other two. Its back is barred with black and white, and it has bold black and white stripes on its face. It is most often found among mesquite trees along desert washes.
Gila woodpeckers are found in southeastern California, extreme southern Nevada, Southern Arizona, southwestern New Mexico and northern Mexico. A common Spanish name for them is "carpintero de Gila."
Presumably, the name Gila came from the river that flows through Arizona, and the word was added to the names of various things that occur in the region. Thus the word "Gila" forms a part of the name of several animals (such as the Gila monster), geographical features including mountains, an Arizona county, mines, ranches, a city and trails.
Gila or "Xila" was used as early as 1630 for a province in New Mexico. Reportedly, Father Eusebio Kino first recorded the river's name as Gila or Hyla in 1697. One authority (Will C. Barnes, in "Arizona Place Names") records that the term de Gila
is a Spanish expression meaning "a steady going to or from a place."
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A Treat for Desert Woodpeckers (sort of)
Our desert-dwelling woodpeckers eat a wide variety of foods, including insects, cactus fruit and mistletoe berries. Gilded flickers will even get down on the ground to eat ants. Homeowners around Tucson often report Gila woodpeckers drinking sugar water from their hummingbird feeders or even picking dried dog food from their dog's bowl! Here's a treat you can make and eat that is kind of like a woodpecker meal. (And you don't even have to pound your beak against a tree to get it!)
Getting ready
You may want an adult's help. You'll need:
● large saucepan
● 13 x 9 x 2-inch pan
● wax paper
● cooking spray
Ingredients
● 3 tablespoons margarine or butter
● 1 10 1/2-ounce package regular marshmallows
● 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
● 1/2 cup raisins
● 6 cups crisped rice cereal
Directions
Over low heat, melt margarine or butter in saucepan. Add marshmallows and stir until completely melted. (These are like the sweet fruit woodpeckers eat.)
Remove from heat. Stir in pumpkin pie spice.
Add the raisins and the cereal. (These represent the crunchy insects and juicy insect larvae that woodpeckers find under tree bark. Yum!) Stir until well-coated.
Spray the 13 x 9 x 2-inch pan with cooking spray. Using wax paper, press mixture evenly into it and let cool. Cut into 2-inch squares. Enjoy!