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The Lewis’s Woodpecker breeds primarily in open forested areas at low elevations where an abundance of large snags provides suitable nesting sites and an open, grassy understory supports high populations of flying insects. It tends to avoid closed forests, even if there are suitable snags available. In British Columbia, the primary habitat types used by this species include open Ponderosa Pine and Douglas-fir forests, riparian cottonwood stands, and regenerating burns. Extirpated populations on the south coast were formerly associated with burns, clearcuts, and Garry Oak woodlands. The densest populations in B.C. are currently associated with riparian cottonwood stands in the southern interior. Migrants in late fall commonly move into a wider variety of habitats such as orchards, agricultural areas, and suburban parks. Wintering birds occur almost exclusively in association with orchards and suburban areas.

Source: Campbell et al. (1990b); Cooper et al. (1998)

Occurs only in western North America. Breeds from southern British Columbia south to central California, Arizona, and New Mexico and winters from extreme south-central B.C. south to southern California, southern Arizona, and southern New Mexico. Casual vagrant south to northern Mexico and east to New England and Newfoundland.

Breeding
Uncommon to locally fairly common at low elevations in the south-central interior, from the eastern slopes of the Coast and Cascade Mountains (Manning Park, etc.) east to the Kettle River (Midway, Grand Forks, etc.) and north to the Fraser-Thompson-Nicola Basin (Kamloops, Merritt, Cache Creek, Barrière) and Shuswap Lake (Salmon Arm, etc.) areas. Farther east, this species is rare and local in southern portions of the West Kootenays (Trail, Castlegar, Nelson, Slocan Valley) and is uncommon along the southern Rocky Mountain Trench north to Invermere. It is also locally uncommon along the Fraser River north to the Chilcotin River and Williams Lake area, and is rare to uncommon west into the southern Coast Mountains (Pemberton area, Fraser Canyon). The largest populations currently occur in the southern and central Okanagan Valley, where the species is considered common. Very rare during the breeding season farther north of the typical breeding range to the Clearwater, Revelstoke, and Golden areas, but breeding occurs in these areas sporadically, if at all. Casual during the breeding season on the south coast, but does not breed in this area.

Non-breeding
Uncommon in winter in the southern and central Okanagan Valley and very rare in the northern Okanagan Valley. Casual in winter in the Thompson Basin (Kamloops) and on the south coast (southern Vancouver Island, Lower Mainland).

Migration and Vagrancy
Uncommon to fairly common spring and fall migrant throughout the south-central and south-eastern (West Kootenays, southern Rocky Mountain Trench) interior. On the south coast, this species is a very rare spring and rare to uncommon fall migrant along the western slopes of the Cascade Range in southwestern B.C., but is otherwise a very rare spring and rare fall migrant in the Lower Mainland and southern Vancouver Island. Casual spring and fall vagrant on northern and eastern Vancouver Island and the Sunshine Coast, and casual to very rare from spring through fall (primarily in fall) through central B.C. north of the breeding range (to Prince George and the Bulkley Valley). Casual in fall (October, November) on the Queen Charlotte Islands.

Although small numbers winter in the Okanagan Valley, the bulk of the population arrives in the souther interior during early May (occasionally in mid- to late April). On the south coast, the small spring movement similarly occurs primarily during May. Southward-bound fall migrants move through the southern interior during August and early September, with most individuals having left the province by late September (although occasional migrants linger into October). On the south coast, fall vagrants occur primarily between August and October.

Source: Campbell et al. (1990b); Cooper et al. (1998)

The Lewis’s Woodpecker has experienced significant and prolonged declines throughout much of its range in B.C. over the past century, including local extirpations. Populations breeding and wintering on the south coast, including southern and eastern Vancouver Island (north at least to Comox), the Gulf Islands, and the Lower Mainland (east to Chilliwack) were described as “abundant” in the early 20th century, but this entire population had become extirpated by the 1960s. The same trend occurred with adjacent coastal populations in western Washington and western Oregon. This population was last recorded breeding in B.C. in the Lower Mainland in 1963, and only occasional vagrants from the interior populations now occur on the coast.

Declines have also been widespread throughout the southern interior, although the species remains locally common in some areas (e.g., southern Okanagan Valley). For example, the species formerly bred in the Rocky Mountain Trench north to Golden (now absent north of Invermere) and in the Revelstoke and Edgewood areas of the Arrow Lakes (now a casual vagrant north of Castlegar). Similarly, the species was described as “uncommon” in the northern Okanagan Valley, with an estimated 20 breeding pairs, in 1990. Twenty years later, however, the species has yet to be recorded from this area on the British Columbia Breeding Bird Atlas, despite three years of intensive surveys.

Overall, it appears that populations throughout the interior are stable or declining, and nowhere (except locally in response to recent burns) are populations increasing or expanding. Possible explanations for these declines include changes in forestry practices and safety standards that require in the removal of potentially hazardous snags, competition with introduced European Starlings, loss of habitat to urban and agricultural development, reservoir creation (e.g., Koocanusa Reservoir), pesticide use (affecting both fruits and insect prey), and (on the coast) loss of Garry Oak meadow habitat; however, the true cause of the decline of the Lewis’s Woodpecker in B.C. (and indeed throughout much of its global range) remains somewhat of a mystery.

As a result of the widespread declines, this species is considered provincially red-listed (Endangered) by the B.C. Conservation Data Centre (CDC) and federally Threatened by COSEWIC (Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada).

Source: Campbell et al. (1990b); Tobalske (1997); Cooper et al. (1998)

The Lewis’s Woodpecker is monotypic, with no recognized subspecies. Appears to be most closely related to the Red-headed Woodpecker (Melanerpes erythrocephalus), although these two species differ significantly in plumage characteristics.

Source: Tobalske (1997)