Lewis's Woodpecker, Slinkard Creek, CA

I saw a pair of Lewis's Woodpeckers last year near Mill Creek, and I've been looking out for them again this year in the same area. I was beginning to think I wouldn't run into them - Lewis's Woodpeckers have been experiencing a general decline in range and population size - but today I was happily proven wrong. This is one of three adults I observed feeding young in a very large dead Jeffrey pine near Slinkard Creek, which is on the road out to Mill Creek. Apparently Lewis's Woodpeckers, like some other bird species, practice cooperative feeding of chicks, a form of altruism.