Golden-winged Woodpecker
Picus auratus Linnaeus [now Colaptes auratus Linnaeus]
Folio edition, plate 37
“This species, which is usually called Pique-bois jaune by the French settlers in Louisiana . . . is one of the most lively of our birds, and is found over the whole of the United States. . . . [After mating they] climb about and around the tree with apparent delight, rattle with their bill against the tops of the dead branches, chase all their cousins the Red-heads, defy the Purple Grakles to enter their nest, feed plentifully on ants, beetles and larvae, cackling at intervals, and ere two weeks have elapsed, the female lays either four or six eggs, the whiteness and transparency of which are doubtless the delight of her heart.”
John James Audubon, Ornithological Biography, or An Account of the Habits of the Birds of the United States of America (Edinburgh: A. Black [et al.], 1831), vol. 1, p. 191-192.
View bird in National Audubon Society Guide to North American Birds.
