Lewis’s Woodpecker – State Wildlife Action Plan

Photo Credit: Dave Herr, National Park Service

Lewis’ Woodpecker (Melanerpes lewis) is a medium-sized woodpecker with greenish black iridescent head, back, wings, and tail. It also has a notable silvery gray collar and upper breast, dark red face, and pinkish or salmon red lower breast and belly. Both sexes similar but the male is slightly larger. The legs and feet are gray, bill is black. In Oregon, breeding Lewis’s Woodpeckers are associated with open woodland habitats including Oregon white oak, ponderosa pine, and riparian cottonwoods. They are also strongly associated with recently burned forests. Lewis’s Woodpecker winters in oak woodlands and oak-pine woodlands where the winter climate is mild enough that emergent insects are sometimes available. They use acorns as their main forage, and winter populations of Lewis’s Woodpecker may be large in oak woodlands experiencing good mast years.
The Lewis’s Woodpecker is endemic to western North America. Individuals breeding in Oregon include both year-round residents and migratory populations.

Overview

Species Common Name Lewis’s Woodpecker
Species Scientific Name Melanerpes lewis
Federal Listing Status Species of Concern
State Listing Status Sensitive

Ecoregions

Blue Mountains

Located in NE Oregon, the Blue Mountains ecoregion is the largest ecoregion in the state. It provides a diverse complex of mountain ranges, valleys, and plateaus that extend beyond Oregon into the states of Idaho and Washington.

Columbia Plateau

The Columbia Plateau ecoregion was shaped by cataclysmic floods and large deposits of wind-borne silt and sand earlier in its geological history. It is dominated by a rolling landscape of arid lowlands dissected by several important rivers, and extends from the eastern slopes of the Cascades Mountains, south and east from the Columbia River to the Blue Mountains.

East Cascades

The East Cascade ecoregion extends from the Cascade Mountains' summit east to the warmer, drier high desert and down the length of the state. This ecoregion varies dramatically from its cool, moist border with the West Cascades ecoregion to its dry eastern border, where it meets sagebrush desert landscapes.

Klamath Mountains

The Klamath Mountains ecoregion covers much of southwestern Oregon, including the Klamath Mountains, Siskiyou Mountains, the interior valleys and foothills between these and the Cascade Range, and the Rogue and Umpqua river valleys. Several popular and scenic rivers run through the ecoregion, including the Umpqua, Rogue, Illinois, and Applegate rivers. Historically, this ecoregion is known …

West Cascades

The West Cascades ecoregion extends from east of the Cascade Mountains summit to the foothills of the Willamette, Umpqua, and Rogue Valleys, and spans the entire length of the state of Oregon. It is largely dominated by conifer forests, moving into alpine parklands and dwarf shrubs at higher elevations.

Special needs

The Lewis’s Woodpecker occupies several different habitat types including ponderosa pine forests, oak woodlands, oak-pine woodlands, cottonwood riparian forests, and areas burned by wildfires. In all cases, special needs include aerial insects for foraging, large snags for nesting (especially soft or well-decayed snags), and relatively open canopy for flycatching. The Lewis’s Woodpecker is potentially the most specialized woodpecker with respect to fly-catching. Lewis’s Woodpecker utilizes burned conifer forest 2-20 years post fire as breeding habitat, and it may breed at higher elevations in recently burned coniferous forest.

Limiting factors

Lewis’s Woodpeckers have experienced significant population declines and local extirpations. Habitat loss and degradation are major factors, including the loss of large-diameter snags needed for nesting and a decline in insect availability within breeding habitats. In non-breeding areas, reductions in the distribution and quality of oak woodlands have also negatively affected the species. Fire suppression and treatments to reduce fire severity are widely thought to have had adverse effects on Lewis’s Woodpecker. Large areas of suitable habitat exist on private lands, limiting the ability of managers to implement management actions for the species outside the context of cooperative partnerships with landowners.

Data gaps

• Assess distribution, habitat relationships, and survival throughout the annual cycle.
• Evaluate population connectivity, individual movements, and migration across different regions.
• Delineate migratory pathways and stopover sites throughout the state.
• Evaluate the impacts of grazing and pesticide use on prey base of insect communities in breeding habitat.
• Evaluate local movements of birds during breeding to determine home range, site fidelity, and foraging requirements.
• Evaluate woodpecker response to acorn mast quantity and quality in non-breeding/wintering habitat.
• Evaluate the impact of European Starlings on nesting success/cavity availability.

Conservation actions

•Maintain or restore open oak, ponderosa pine, and cottonwood woodlands, along with post-fire ponderosa pine habitat.
•Maintain large diameter snags in breeding habitat for nesting and foraging, particularly in burned areas.
•Expand on efforts to track movement, migration, and connectivity of the species.

Key reference or plan

Lewis’s Woodpecker (Melanerpes lewis): A Technical Conservation Assessment. Read here

Conservation of Landbirds and Associated Habitats and Ecosystems in the East Cascade Mountains. Read here

Conservation of Landbirds and Associated Habitats and Ecosystems in the Northern Rocky Mountains of Oregon and Washington. Read here