Welcome to You Ask Andy

Marnie Jordan, age 11, of Costa Mesa, Calif., for her question:

HOW DO WOODPECKERS CLING TO TREES?

Most woodpeckers work for man by helping to protect the forest. They eat insects and grubs that lie beneath tree bark, and find food by pounding on trees with their sharp beaks. When his hole is drilled, the woodpecker grabs his bug meal with a pointed, barbed tongue.

There are a surprising 210 different species of woodpeckers living today in the wooded areas of every part of the world except Madagascar, Australia and many of the Oceania islands.

Each woodpecker seems to have an almost magical ability to cling to tree trunks and branches. that go straight up an down. A short, stiff tail, hooked claws and four toed feet support his body as he seems to be stuck at an almost impossible angle. One variety, the northern blackbacked and boreal woodpecker, by the way, has only three toes. All varieties, however, use the spine tipped tail as a brace in climbing vertical surfaces.

So that's how the woodpecker clings to trees: He's built for it.

Woodpeckers have long and strong necks. Their chisel tipped bills used for cutting into wood have unusual strength, and their skulls are especially reinforced to withstand the pounding and vibrations.

Woodpeckers prey chiefly on beetles and other insects that live more or less permanently in dead wood. They do not migrate.

One variety of woodpecker, the yellow bellied sapsucker, girdles trunks of trees with borings and thus is one of the .few in his family that could prove harmful to man.

Our friend the woodpecker seems to depend on his sense of hearing to detect his prey. In hunting, he mounts from the lower part of a tree, often working in long spirals, hopping briskly and pausing often to listen. He turns his head from side to side regularly and then either starts hammering or bounds off to another location.

He builds his nest by drilling round holes in dead limbs and trunks. He tunnels down from 12 to 18 inches and hollows out a chamber where three to five eggs are laid.

The father in the family plays an important part in the nest building, incubation and rearing of the young, although mother helps. Incubation time for the eggs ranges from 11 to 14 days, going up to 18 days for some of the larger species. The nesting period is then from 19 to 35 days  much longer than with most birds.

 

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