Nuttall's Woodpecker

“Picus scalaris nutalli. Nuttall’s Woodpecker. Similar; rather larger’ more white, this prevailing on the back over the black bars; nape chiefly white; nasal tufts white; lateral tail-feathers, especially, sparsely or imperfectly barred. The Californian coast race, differing decidedly in some respects, and constantly; but connected with general series of ladder-backs. Barring restricted to the back proper, the hind neck being black, succeeded anteriorly by a white space adjoining the red, wanting in scalaris, where red joins black. Red chiefly confined to the occiput, the rest of the crown black, spotted with white. Lateral tail-feathers white, not barred throughout, having not 1-3 black bars, all beyond their middles, all but the terminal one of these broken. White postocular stripe running into the white nuchal area, but cut off from the white of the shoulders. White maxillary stripe enclosed in black as in scalaris, but this black continuous with the cervical black patch, which is not the case in scalaris. No Smoky-brown state of the under parts observed.” Elliot Coues, 1884

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