Picture courtesy Charles Martinez
Today’s Bird of the Week, compliments of the Weminuche Audubon Society and Audubon Rockies, is the hairy woodpecker.
Numerous woodpecker types display adjustments which support a way of life of revealing pests living near the surface area of, or buried deep within, trees. Amongst these are a directly, chisel-shaped expense which enables them to drill into wood without getting stuck, shock absorbers in the skull to moisten the blows from pounding on wood and stiff tail plumes to brace upright on a trunk. A clear, additional eyelid stays out the wood dust.
A hairy woodpecker can turn among its 4 clawed toes to accomplish the very best balance for holding on to a tree trunk. It might find victim by tapping along the trunk or a big branch of the tree to hear the distinction when it is above the tunnel of a wood-boring bug. This is followed by sculpting in to expose the tunnel and after that by utilizing its long, barbed tongue to rake out the pests.
Although pests comprise more than 75 percent of these woodpeckers’ diet plan, they likewise reveal indications of a craving for sweets. They will consume sap from wells developed by sapsuckers, peck into sugar walking cane and hold on by their toes to consume nectar from hummingbird feeders. They easily concern consume at suet and sunflower seed feeders, wedging seed into bark crevices to break it open.
Hairy woodpeckers have a prevalent variety which covers the majority of The United States and Canada and dips south as far as Central America. Seventeen subspecies which vary in size and plumage tones are acknowledged.
In our location, hairy woodpeckers are robin-sized birds with white undersides, a black back with a main spot of long white plumes, black wings checkered with white, and 2 white stripes on the head. Males have a red spot on the back of the head. It can be an obstacle to distinguish in between hairy and the almost similar, however smaller sized, downy woodpeckers unless the 2 are seen together.
For info on future occasions, see www.weminucheaudubon.org and www.facebook.com/weminucheaudubon/.
