Three Different Woodpeckers in Paradise

Seen at the historic George Walker House in the Chiricahuas

The George Walker House is a historic house in Paradise, Arizona. About five miles outside of Portal, it was built in 1905 in the mining town of Paradise. Now, Paradise is a very small community and the George Walker house has become a mecca for ecotourists and bird enthusiasts. Winston and Jackie, the owners, are wonderful hosts to all visitors and their yard is a must-see location. We spent a morning there and saw three different species of Woodpeckers. Acorn Woodpeckers are very common and iconic woodpeckers of southeastern and eastern Arizona mountain ranges.

The Acorn Woodpecker above is a male. It has a red cap that touches a white forehead. The Acorn Woodpecker below is a female. The red on her head is further back and there is black between the red cap and the white forehead. Acorn Woodpeckers are commonly described as having a “clownish” face. They live in social groups and their calls are recognizable to anyone who spends time in the Sky Islands of Arizona.

A female Arizona Woodpecker showed up. Unlike the black and white color of most North American Woodpeckers, the Arizona Woodpecker is brown, the color of tree bark. It has a white cheek patch and a spotted breast. A male would have a red spot at the back of his head so this bird, lacking that red spot, is a female.

The Arizona Woodpecker was named for the area it is found in the United States as the range map (from AllAboutBirds) below indicates.

Arizona Woodpeckers are a small species and they forage by flying to the base of a tree and then they work their way up, probing for insects. I caught this one mid-hop! Birdnote has a really nice piece on these special woodpeckers.

A surprising woodpecker to see was this Red-naped Sapsucker. As its name implies, it has a patch of red at the back of its head. Generally this is a bird we see in the desert during winter. During summer, it breeds further north, so this bird may either have been on its way north, or perhaps it would be summering at a higher elevation in the mountains.

Sapsucker Woodpeckers are named for their habit of drilling rows of holes in trees and then eating the sap that runs out of them. They actually don’t “suck the sap”, they lick it. To learn how they manage this, here’s a Birdnote story to explain the science behind why their bills don’t stick together from that sticky sap.

These mountain woodpeckers are different from the common desert ones we find in the Tucson valley but they are all part of the higher elevations of the Sonoran Desert. It was nice to see all three species while sitting in one place, the porch of the George Walker House. For more about the George Walker House, you can visit their website.