Hi Tweets,

This is the time of year that many juvenile (1st year) woodpeckers are starting to venture out on their own after getting kicked out of Mom and Dad's home range/territory. We are seeing this with the White-headed Woodpeckers we are studying. They have been following Mom and Dad around begging for food now for about 6-8 weeks and are just now starting to show independence...meaning not begging and pestering the parents. Some are still on territory (the earliest fledgers seem to be dispersing) but expect to be "forced to leave" any time soon. Over here on the eastside (and I suspect on the westside), Hairy Woodpeckers nest about 4 weeks earlier than White-headeds, so Hairy fledglings are probably already starting to venture out on their own in force looking for new territories. This could explain the occurrence of Hairies in areas many people haven't seen them regularly. Some birds will find unoccupied territories left by deceased landowners and some will not find territories and like White-headeds, become floaters that roam around other occupied territories pestering the territory owners as they seek to determine if vacancies are there. Numerous times this year we have found unbanded floater White-headeds in territories occupied by banded birds. In some instances, unbanded males have even accompanied banded females back to the nest cavity. You can imagine that the dominant male (territory holder) was not too pleased!! These floaters are non-breeders, perhaps 1st-year birds (SY by banding code) that were unsuccessful finding a territory.

Just a little woodpecker biology for tweets who are interested.

Jeff Kozma

Yakima