Scientific Name: Melanerpes uropygialis
Residency: This species is a permanent resident of the Sonoran Desert.
Diet: Feeds upon invertebrates hiding beneath bark trees, as well as on cactus fruit, and even saguaro pollen, when its flower is in bloom. Gila Woodpeckers are able to catch prey with their sticky tongues.  They have been known to store food within their nesting cavities for winter usage.
Predators: Preyed upon by hawks and falcons.  Young are preyed upon by snakes.
Nesting: They nest in cavities, which they have excavated with their bills, located within the mid to lower portion of saguaro cacti. The female lays 3-4 eggs within this cavity, and both the male and female incubate the eggs.
Nesting Records: Coon Bluff, Brown's Ranch.
Notes: The Gila Woodpecker makes holes in saguaro cacti for nesting, benefiting many other desert wildlife species who later inhabit these crevices after the Gila Woodpecker has abandoned them; these species include other birds like the elf and western screech owls, American Kestral, Brown-crested flycatchers, and other animals including mice, rats, lizards and snakes. The Gila Woodpecker also serves the ecological role of seed disperser for the saguaro cactus by eating its fruit, and dispersing its seeds to new locations. The Gila Woodpecker was once a popular bird in California, but the near elimination of the saguaro cacti along California?s stretch of the Colorado River has reduced this once wide-ranging bird to only a few hundred pairs in California, and has essentially led this species to almost exclusively reside in Arizona.
Photo: Photo at right was taken at Coon Bluff on January 7, 2007. For more photos, click on camera icon.

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