September: The Acorn Woodpecker and the Steller's Jay Getting Ready for Winter . . . . . .

Steller's Jay in Summerhaven with 2 peanuts, one shelled and held in his throat, the other ready for winter storage.  Canon R6 RF 100-500 mm at 343 mm, f/5/6, 1/2000 second, +1 EV. Post production in Lightroom Classic. 

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Those who follow my blog regularly (both of you) may have noticed that my last post was at  the end of July, on spring migration! Now it is September!  So sorry for the delay, but  August was a busy month including the Tucson Audubon Society's Southeast Arizona Birding Festival, a day trip to Mt. Lemmon for the Camera Club Tucson Trek Special Interest Group, as well as a 4 day trip to Portal AZ the end of the month. Now I am back to blogging, beginning with this post on two of our resident species in SE Arizona, the Acorn Woodpecker and the Steller's Jay.  

Late summer is a time when fledglings join the ranks of adults, many birds are molting creating comic confusion,  and nuts are stored for the winter (literally!).  So let's start with the Acorn Woodpecker going after food.

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Acorn Woodpeckers eat, well . . . , Acorns!  (and some other stuff!)

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An Acorn Male (could be dad or an uncle) arrives with two fresh acorns for a fledgling, high on a branch above Cave Creek along the South Fork Road, Portal, Arizona, August 27, 2022.  Canon R6 with RF 800mm, f/11, 1/1000 sec, ISO 10,000 +1 EV.  Post production processing in Topaz DeNoise and Adobe LR Classic. 

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There are 23 species of woodpecker in North America.  The Acorn is one of the most entertaining!  Acorns look like clowns, with black and white faces, a white iris, and a red cap.  Females sport a black band between the white forehead and the red cap.  They live in central portions of Central America and Mexico, up into eastern Arizona and western New Mexico, as well as the U.S. pacific coast.  They favor mountain slopes close to oak forests, and live in large groups where they breed cooperatively.  
So, it is not clear whether the adult male arriving with the acorns in in fact the father, or a distant relative from his colony.  For more on Acorn Woodpeckers on Mt. Lemmon see this post: October 2019 on Mt Lemmon. 

These images were captured in Cave Creek Canyon in Portal in late August.  The riparian oak woodlands near the creek are perfect for this species.   

Above, a male arrives with two acorns, caps still attached, much to the pleasure of a hungry juvenile. 

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The adult male stows the acorns in a crevice on the far side of this branch, and spends some time hammering away at it with his bill, breaking it up into small pieces, ready for the hungry offspring below.  Note: adult male to the right, fledgling on the left.

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"That was good, but I am still hungry!"   Like an adolescent at the dinner table, there is never quite enough! 
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Note that Acorn Woodpeckers eat other nuts as well as insects and other arthropods. 

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Now, let's go to Mt. Lemmon. . . .

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Mt Lemmon has a year round Acorn Woodpecker population living near the creek  close to the oaks.  We see here a similar sequence similar to that in Cave Creek, captured not far from the Sabino Creek on August 21, 2022. The adult male is on the left, likely parsing out parts of an acorn.  

This sequence reminds me of a Vaudeville act. The markings on the Acorn Woodpecker make all their antics more entertaining.   

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Canon R6, RF 100-500 mm at 500 mm, f/7.1,  1/500 second, ISO 1000 +2/3 EV. 

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"The food here is OK,  but the service is a bit slow . . "

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On September 10, 2022, I put out some whole peanuts on the ground near the cabin and in a feeder, seen below.  Here we see a male Acorn Woodpecker demonstrating  that peanuts are on his shopping list along with acorns.  He has no difficulty extracting the shells from the feeder. 

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Canon R6, RF 100-500 mm at 500 mm, f/7.1,  1/500 second, ISO 1000 +2/3 EV. ​

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Most of the nuts that Acorn's collect are cached, usually in dead trees that are designated as granary trees.  For more on granary trees on Mt Lemmon see:  Winter Review 2020: Part II of II.  All the acorns this male picked up he flew away with.

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Now Enter the Steller's Jay . . . . .

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In the image above we see a female Acorn Woodpecker eye to eye with a Steller's Jay, on the support just above a feeder stocked with whole peanuts.   The Steller's Jay retreats, leaving the Acorn to the peanut supply.  It appears that the Acorn female is dominant. 

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No surprise, our second species is the Steller's Jay, a member of the Corvid family, which includes crows, ravines, rooks, jackdaws, jays, magpies, treaties, coughs, and nutcrackers.  

Steller's Jays love peanuts, as we will see shortly, but in spite of their reputation for smarts*, on this day this bird seemed reluctant to try to get peanuts from the feeder.  Although the Acorn pulled lots of peanuts from the feeder, the jay did not even sit on it. Jays may be cautious of new settings, especially related to food, a trait found in Common Ravens, one of their cousins.

For more on Common Ravens see The Mind of the Raven, Investigations and Adventures with Wolf-birds, by Bernd Heinrich.  Caution: this is not a short read!  I would start with the Afterword (p. 353) to get oriented and then look especially at Chapters 18-20 (Raven's Fears, Raven and Wolves in Yellowstone, and From Wolf-Birds to Human-Birds). 

Below a Steller's Jay grabs a peanut from a small stash on a rock.


*see The Genius of Birds, by Jennifer Ackerman, Penguin books 2016. 

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Canon R6, RF 100-500 mm at 343 mm, f/5.6,  1/500 second, ISO 6400 +1 EV. 

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However, when the peanuts were on the ground, the jays were very interested.  This day there were two Steller's Jays picking up peanuts and caching them somewhere in the ground south of the feeders.   If I had recorded video, we would see them pick up a single peanut, look around, drop it, pick up another, look around, drop it, etc., until finding just the right peanut.  Note that in spite of the apparent pickiness about choosing the right peanut, all the peanuts were soon gone. 

Most of the peanuts were hauled away intact for caching, but below we see a male or female (they look alike) cracking open a peanut shell and extracting the peanut. 

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Above we see the jay has grabbed the peanut, complete with its seed coat, which he then removed in the two frames below.

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Above the jay has the peanut ready to eat, and below transfers it to his throat.

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With one peanut in this throat he grabs another in the shell.

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At this point he took off with one peanut for a snack and another for a later day. 

Note that birds have tongues, but no teeth. Food that needs to be broken up or crushed needs to be done by the bill.  Some birds have specialized bills, for example the Pyrrhuloxia has an angle to the bill (the culmen)  creating a great nutcracker.  For more on their specialized bills and comparison to the Northern Cardinal, see Patagonia, Arizona, February 2018.  

In this case, it appears that the jay is increasing his food gathering efficiency by holding a shelled peanut in his throat, and a whole peanut in his bill.  Similar behavior has been seen in Common Ravens, see Mind of the Raven, Chapter 25. 

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In the 5 frame sequence below, a jay shows that his is a hopper (and not a walker!) going from one rock to another, using his wings to soften the landing.  Note that some birds don't hop, but walk or run, for example the American Pipit, who winters in SE Arizona near water and agricultural land.  For more on the pipit see White Water Draw, January 2018.

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Canon R6, RF 100-500 mm at 300 mm, f/5.6,  1/2000 second, ISO 8000 +1 EV. 

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That's it for Acorn Woodpeckers and Jays as they transition from summer to fall.

Stay tuned for more from Portal, AZ, in August, including hummingbirds and the tragicomedy of Northern Cardinals molting. 

Happy Trails!