Behavior

Magellanic woodpecker pairs or family groups cross large extensions of forest to feed (> 100 ha at least in lenga forest, and depending on the habitat features), leaving their characteristic feeding signs on dead, live, fallen or standing trees.

The woodpeckers are very active in their food searching; they spend most of the day time looking for prey. They generally use live trees, but also feed on dead substrates such as fallen or broken trees lying on the ground, although in lesser proportions. Once the snow disappears from the ground in spring, Magellanic Woodpeckers look for prey on humid lower tree trunks. In Tierra del Fuego, Magellanic Woodpeckers forage on decaying and dead trees at ponds of the introduced Beaver (Castor canadensis) (Vergara and Schlatter 2004).
Magellanic Woodpeckers spend most of the time pecking and excavating as foraging techniques, and less time, scaling. In this way their foraging resembles that of Dryocopus woodpeckers (Short 1970, Newell et al. 2009). Females frequently forage on small substrates such as twigs and high branches while males tend to use trunks and large branches. During the first year juveniles follow their parents and often explore foraging pits made by adults.

Roosting Behavior: 
During the whole year the species roosts in tree cavities, usually in old nest or excavated roost holes, frequently in live trees.

The family members can share the cavity if it is big enough, up to 5 individuals in an approximately 40 cm-vertical depth hole. Alternatively, family members can divide between several nearby holes. During the breeding season, the female often roosts in a cavity with a sub-adult offspring from previous years while the male stays in the nest overnight. Woodpeckers start the day very early in the morning, just before sunrise, although the beginning time changes throughout the year matching with sunrise. They start foraging immediately in the vicinity of the roost upon emerging from it, and they move away from the cavity as the day progresses, coming back at nightfall. They often use the same hole on successive days.

Magellanic Woodpeckers are highly territorial birds resulting from trophic specialization and reproduction habits, as the species requires specific substrates for foraging and to excavate the nest cavity. Family groups defend large territories from intruders where conditions are met. During territorial disputes adults usually perform territorial double-knocks, but if two territorial groups meet, often the whole family, including juveniles, participate and perform antagonistic behaviors such as wing spreads and chase flights.

Many of the breeding pairs share their territory with immature birds (one or two and sometimes more) from previous years at the onset of the breeding season, since juveniles remain in the natal territory for 2–3 years (occasionally 4-5 years) together with their parents. Although juveniles are seen at the nest area during the excavation, they rarely approach the nest site after eggs have been laid. When juveniles appear around an active nest, adults usually react aggressively (Chazarreta et al 2010).

Magellanic Woodpecker, like most of the picids, reproduces in simple monogamous pairs and lives in stable groups or clans formed by 2–4 individuals (Ojeda 2004). The mating system involves year-round residency with fulltime partnership (Ojeda 2004), thus reducing the chances of a new mate choice. Likely, the high parental investment by both adults would not favor re-mating opportunities for any sex (Chazarreta et al. 2010).

Magellanic Woodpecker coexist almost throughout its range with two smaller species of woodpeckers, Chilean Flicker (Colaptes pitius, length: 33 cm) and Striped Woodpecker (P. lignarius, 18 cm). These do not seem to represent potential competitors due to difference in size, foraging behaviors, and nest substrate selection. Striped Woodpecker shares the same forested habitats as Magellanic Woodpecker, but Chilean Flicker is more a bird of open areas and forest edge. The lack of recorded interactions between Magellanic Woodpecker and the two co-existing woodpecker species indicates the absence of competition among the species, probably due to segregation by morphology and behavior. Competitors are, instead, conspecifics. These can be floaters, juveniles of previous years, and adjacent pairs (Chazarreta et al. 2010).

Antagonistic behaviors with other birds, except with potential predators, are usually of little importance, where for example a Magellanic Woodpecker is chased away by small birds (e.g. swallows, siskins) from the vicinity of their nests.

Faced with potential predators, such as hawks (White-throated Hawk Buteo albigula, Variable Hawk B. polyosoma, and Bicolored Hawk Accipiter bicolor chilensis), Southern Caracaras (Caracara plancus), and probably nocturnal raptors (Strigiformes), woodpeckers behave usually in two different ways: being silent and quiet or chasing away the raptor.