This is a video I took a few years ago of several Acorn Woodpeckers clowning around at my feeding station.Īlso check out the great video by National Geographic on the Acorn Woodpecker and their nut stashing at the top right of the page. In flight, look for blazing white rump and wing patches. Otherwise glossy-black with streaky underparts. A group member is always on alert to guard the hoard from thieves, while others race through the trees giving parrotlike waka-waka calls. Their social lives are endlessly fascinating: they store thousands of acorns each year by jamming them into specially made holes in trees. They love to nest inside trees and collect as many acorns as possible for food storage. Physically, these woodpeckers will have a red-tipped head and black coat. It’s quite the transformation don’t you think? Sign in to see your badges Medium-sized woodpecker with unique face pattern: red crown, pale yellowish forehead and throat, and pale eye. Reminiscent of a troupe of wide-eyed clowns, Acorn Woodpeckers live in large groups in western oak woodlands. The Acorn Woodpecker is a species that primarily resides in the western portion of New Mexico that borders Arizona, and they nest in oakwood forests. These photos of the dark eyed bird were taken just three weeks before the top photo, which I believe is the same individual juvenile bird. The dark eyes of the young fledgling quickly lighten to the sky blue seen in the top photograph and by the end of the its prebasic molt (2 to 4 months post fledging) the irises are pale yellow to white like the adult’s. Here you can see the white upper tail coverts and conspicuous wing patches that are most obvious during flight. This year-round resident gives a metallic rattle and high-pitched pit most of the year. It circles around branches in search of food and sometimes perches crosswise on a twig much like a sparrow might do. The juvenile’s scarlet crown extends from its nape to its white forehead patch, similar to the adult male’s. In Californias oak woodlands the small black-and-white striped Nuttalls Woodpecker hitches up branches and twigs of oaks, willows, and cottonwoods. He’s not sure of what he is doing but their are several adults nearby watching him and calling to him. The young Acorn Woodpecker, like this youngster approaching the water feature for a drink, begins its life with dark irises. These family groups forage together and the adults always bring their young to my feeding station and water feature to teach them the finer details of what it is to be an Acorn Woodpecker. This is an adult male sticking his head out of a natural cavity in a Gray Pine snag. This woodpecker is a cooperative breeder and lives in family groups of up to a dozen or more individuals. They are conspicuous, gregarious and a joy to watch. Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY 14850, USA email protected Google Scholar. Producer: John Kessler Executive Producer: Sallie Bodie © 2016 Tune In to Nature.Acorn Woodpecker Juvenile ( Melanerpes formicivorus) photo by Larry JordanĪcorn Woodpeckers ( Melanerpes formicivorus) nest on my property here in Northern California. Department of Neurobiology and Behavior, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA. BirdNote’s theme music was composed and played by Nancy Rumbel and John Kessler. #īird sounds provided by The Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Today’s show brought to you by the Bobolink Foundation. Meaning Acorn Woodpeckers spend much of the winter shuttling them from one hole to another, finding just the right fit. Because in the weeks after a fresh acorn is lodged in a hole, it dries and shrinks. So does the Acorn Woodpecker just kick back and munch acorns all winter? Not a chance. But if trees with thick bark are in short supply, utility poles, fence posts, or the sides of barns will serve the same purpose. Some of them hold as many as 50,000 acorns, which the woodpeckers rely on when insect prey and other foods are hard to come by. A family of Acorn Woodpeckers may use this storage tree, or granary, for generations. And it chips out these little recesses to fit the acorns it’ll harvest throughout the fall. We’re watching an Acorn Woodpecker, a bird found in parts of the western US. A closer look reveals thousands of these small pockets in the bark, most neatly set with acorns. Eyeing the tree with care, the woodpecker wedges the object into a shallow hole. Its face is almost clown-like, boldly patterned in black and cream, with a red crown. A large, dark woodpecker clings to the side of a tree. Acorn Woodpeckers Create Granaries, One Acorn at a Time
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |