If you live in a city, like I do, you've probably never seen a Woodpecker bird. They prefer to live in woods and forests where they can make their homes IN trees. These are the only birds which can peck holes in trees. They live chiefly on the insects and larvae in tree bark. Thus, they do us a great service, particularly in orchards.
"No other bird leaves behind such striking evidence of its presence. A hundred thousand warblers may migrate through a small region. . . when they have gone, little sign of their former presence will be left behind, but a half dozen woodpeckers in the same community will leave very definite evidence. . . numerous holes in dead trees, with here and there an entrance to a nesting cavity," T. Gilbert Pearson, Woodpeckers, Friends of Our Forests,National Geographic Magazine, April 1933, p. 456).
The birds possess specialized equipment for their work: four clawed toes (in most species) to climb trees, stiff tail feathers to brace themselves on the trees, and a long, spiny tongue. In addition to pecking holes in trees for their homes, one species of woodpeckers, the sapsuckers, drink the sap from many trees from the small holes; this may actually harm or kill the tree. The more than 400 species of woodpeckers are found throughout the world.
Once I saw a woodpecker! Last summer, when I was visiting my friend, Pam, in her cabin near Lake Cumberland, Kentucky, in the woods, she pointed out a woodpecker on the tree directly behind the cabin. I looked at it, quickly grabbed my camera, but the bird moved between trees too quickly for me to get a snapshot. It appeared longer but not as rotund than a common robin.
In this article are eight pages of colored paintings of various woodpecker species. Nearly all have spots, stripes, or larges areas of red. They are quite beautiful.
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