Scientific Name: Picoides scalaris
Residency: Year-round resident of the southwestern United States.
Diet: This woodpecker eats insects found beneath or on the bark of trees.
Predators: Hawks and owls.
Nesting: This bird nests in cavities that have been chiseled out of mesquite trees along desert washes.  Like all woodpeckers, the Ladderback Woodpecker lays all white eggs, presumably because there is no need for camouflage within their nest cavities.
Nesting Records: Brown's Ranch, Coon Bluff.
Notes: Because this bird eats wood-boring beetles and other insects, it contributes to the functioning of its ecosystem by controlling the population of these insects, and their effects on trees.

Photo: Taken at Coon Bluff on April 4, 2007. For more photos, click on camera icon.

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