Gila Woodpecker

Woodpeckers are chisel-billed, wood boring birds with powerful feet (two toes front and two toes back), remarkably long tongues and stiff spiny tails that act as props when climbing.  The Gila is “zebra-backed” and when flying shows a white wing patch.  Its head and underparts are gray-brown. Males have a round red cap.

Turn saguaros into dwellings

The noisy Gila woodpecker is one of the chief architects of saguaro-hole homes.   Woodpeckers may use the same nesting hole twice, but the holes are often claimed by owls and flycatchers as well as snakes, lizards and rodents.  Some saguaros resemble aviary apartment houses when the woodpeckers are done with them.

The Gila woodpecker eats wood boring insects, ants and berries.