Susan Redding, age 12, of Sophia, N.C., for her question:
WHY DOES THE WOODPECKER PECK?
Most woodpeckers have harsh, loud voices. Often they repeat their ringing, sharp call notes in successive peals. They do not have true songs but during courtship they call
more vigorously and repeatedly than they do during other seasons. They also advertise their presence during mating time by drumming a loud, rolling tattoo on a dead limb, tin roof or metal stovepipe.
Woodpeckers belong to a large family in which there are 210 species. Only 179, however, are classified as true woodpeckers, with the other 31 being placed in two more primitive groups.
Nature has given the woodpecker a special assignment: to go out into the woods and eat insects which can only be found by pecking into tree trunks and branches. And to handle this difficult job, the woodpecker was given lots of special equipment.
A typical woodpecker bill is straight, hard and pointed. It's an ideal chisel for digging into bark and wood. This chisel beak, backed by a large head with a strong, thick walled skull to absorb the shocks of pounding, is driven by extremely powerful muscles in the slim but wiry neck.
Woodpeckers have long, extensible tongues which most species can stick out to astonishing lengths beyond the bill. The tongue itself is actually shorter than it appears, but it is attached to the hyoid, a structure of bone and elastic tissue which loops around the skull and pushes the tongue completely out of the mouth when the woodpecker is feeding.
Backward pointing barbs are found on the woodpecker's tongue, and he also has some special salivary glands that secrete an especially gluey substance that helps to trap insects.
Woodpeckers start feeding near the base of a tree and work their way spirally upward around it, probing into each likely cranny as they go. They explore the promising larger limbs as well, often clinging to the underside of a horizontal branch to get at a borer there. When they reach the top they swoop down to the base of the next tree and repeat the maneuver as long as they are feeding.
A woodpecker has toes arranged so that he can cling to trees and branches easily. Two toes are pointed forward and two are pointed backward. The bird uses his stiff tail as a support while clinging to a trunk.
Woodpeckers make holes in the trunks of trees for their nests, leaving some fine chips of wood at the bottom to cushion the eggs. The babies are hatched featherless.
Feeding habits of the woodpecker do not encourage gregariousness. You'll seldom see them flying in flocks. The members of the smaller species are often unsuspicious when near humans, but the larger ones tend to keep their distance.