Woodpecker (Melanerpes erythrocephalus)
Order: Piciformes, Family: Picidae
Woodpeckers range in size, from 6 to 9 inches long. Small to midsize birds, they cling to the trunks and large branches of trees and large cactus with their sharp claws. Their short legs and stiff, spine-tipped tails help them stay vertical.
They have long, pointed, chisel-like bills that enable them to bore into wood.
Twice the length of its bill, the woodpecker's narrow tongue is tipped with spear-like barbs, which the bird uses to impale wood-boring insects.
Male and female woodpeckers look very similar, except males have a red or yellow patch on their head that is lacking or much smaller on females.
I. DESCRIPTION:
- Woodpeckers range in size, from 6 to 9 inches long. Small to midsize birds, they cling to the trunks and large branches of trees and large cactus with their sharp claws. Their short legs and stiff, spine-tipped tails help them stay vertical.
- They have long, pointed, chisel-like bills that enable them to bore into wood.
- Twice the length of its bill, the woodpecker's narrow tongue is tipped with spear-like barbs, which the bird uses to impale wood-boring insects.
- Male and female woodpeckers look very similar, except males have a red or yellow patch on their head that is lacking or much smaller on females.
II. GEOGRAPHICAL RANGE AND HABITAT:
- Woodpeckers inhabit North America, and are prominent in the southwestern United States and Alaska.
- The live in holes in tall cactus and living or dead tree trunks and limbs.
III. DIET:
- Woodpeckers consume insects, sap, oak catkins, fruit and flower nectar. Occasionally, they eat grass seeds, lizards and bird eggs.
- Woodpeckers mostly forage in or near the forest canopy. They rarely go to the ground except to pick up grit and fallen acorns.
IV. LIFE CYCLE/SOCIAL STRUCTURE:
- Woodpeckers are highly gregarious and live together year-round in groups. Group members in temperate habitats do not forage together, but tropical populations do. Woodpeckers are extremely territorial.
- Woodpeckers tend to be sedentary, but some populations migrate in areas where there large seasonal fluctuations of insects.
- Each group contains one to seven male breeders and one to three egg-laying female. In groups with more than one female breeder, the female co-breeders lay their eggs in the same nest.
- Females sharing nesting sites regularly destroy eggs laid by their co-breeders. However, once females have established a normal laying sequence, egg destruction stops.
- The average clutch size for a single female is four eggs. Females lay eggs at approximately 24-hour intervals. Incubation lasts 11 days, and both the male and female sit on the eggs. Once the chicks have hatched, all group members participate in feeding them. Young leave the nest after 30 to 32 days.
V. SPECIAL NOTES/ADAPTATIONS:
- Woodpeckers in the U.S. Southwest live there all year, though some sapsuckers migrate south for the winter.
- In Arizona alone, there are eight different species of woodpeckers: acorn, Arizona, downy, Gila, hairy, ladder-backed, Lewis' and Strickland's.
- The species differ mainly in terms of color and color patterns.
Related Content
 Coming from Spain, this breed arrived in the US via the Caribbean Islands. Spanish are the oldest breed of chickens existent in the US today. At one time known as "The Fowls of Seville", they were very popular in the South during the Colonial period. The large area of snow white skin surrounding the face and wattles makes this breed unique. Actually this is an over developed earlobe.
|
 by David Rennie An army of 700,000 specially trained ducks and chickens has been mobilised to help fight China's biggest locust plague in 25 years. The birds, which are taught to pursue and eat locusts at the sound of a whistle, are part of a national campaign that includes 280,000 people backed by crop-dusting planes and special locust-killing micro-organisms imported from Britain. Swarms of locusts have d...
|
 Order: Passeriformes, Family: Corvidae American Crows are native to the Nearctic region all over North America. They can be found in the lower part of Canada and through the continental United States.
Adult American Crows are completely black birds weighing on average 450 g. The feathers have a glossy and slightly iridescent look. Crows have strong legs and toes. The bill is also black with a slight hook on the end. Stiff bristles c...
|
 A man found an eagle's egg and put it in a nest of a barnyard hen. The eaglet hatched with the brood of chicks and grew up with them. All his life the eagle did what the barnyard chicks did, thinking he was a barnyard chicken. He scratched the earth for worms and insects. He clucked and cackled. And he would thrash his wings and fly a few feet into the air. Years passed and the eagle gre...
|
 Family: Alcidae The puffin's most striking feature is its large, brightly colored bill.
Early sailors dubbed the puffin the "sea parrot" because of its stout body, short wings, and orange or red webbed feet, which are placed far back on its body.
Males and females have the exact same markings. It's unknown whether this confuses the birds, but it certainly confuses bird-watchers.
During the summer...
|
 The hornbill is a big, spectacular bird with a massive "double-story" bill consisting of a long, deep beak with a projection (known as a casque) on top.
Hornbills usually have large heads, thin necks, broad wings and long tail feathers.
There are 46 species of hornbill in Borneo, with the four most prominent being the black, pied, rhinoceros and wreathed hornbills.
All are basically blac...
|
|
Add Feedback