Backyard and Beyond

Starting out from Brooklyn, an amateur naturalist explores our world.

As John Burroughs said, “The place to observe nature is where you are.”

Wood-jabbers

A glimpse of the tongue of this male Down Woodpecker grabbing something from inside the beech limb he was pounding away at. Will this branch be undermined by this work?
Here’s a rather larger tree limb that came down with a woodpecker hole almost perfectly intact. This hole is about 9cm across.

mthew

3 responses to “Wood-jabbers”

  1. Christopher Enright

    For a little bird, they sure pack a wallop!
    We had a YBSS hanging out in a Black Walnut outside our apartment window for a few weeks in warm late December. Fun to watch him work the circle, boring a nice ring of holes about 25′ from us.

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  2. Charles McAlexander

    When jug feeders were used in Central Park a tube called a Noel guard and made from 1/2″ hog wire was mounted over the entrances to restrict the ize of the birds which could enter and get food. This proved no deterrence to a Red-bellied Woodpecker. He hung from the bottom of the tube so his bill was just inside the tube and reached in with his very long tongue to get some seed. I saw this several times and think it was always the same bird, but can’t attest to that now, some 8-10 years later, but it was memorable.

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  3. Charles McAlexander

    9CM is about 3-5/8″. That hole is large enough for a Northern Flicker, an Eastern Screeech Owl or a Wood Duck depending upon the cavity size. Quite a loss to those species!

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