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Picidae
Woodpeckers - Picidae Scarlet-backed Woodpecker Veniliornis callonotus Woodpeckers are highly specialized and hence fascinating birds. Besides the true woodpeckers which are familiar and easily recognizable as such by almost all, including non-birders, the Picidae family also includes Wrynecks, Piculets, Flickers and Sapsuckers. The majority of woodpeckers are specialists in climbing tree trunks and in excavating their own nest-holes in trunks and branches. They have evolved certain anatomical adaptations such as strong feet with mobile toes, claws for clinging to smooth surfaces, stiff tail feathers to help them steady themselves on tree trunks and other vertical surfaces, strong chisel shaped bills and skulls with attached shock-absorbers and also very long tongues for probing into crevices and insect nests to search out larvae. The fact that woodpeckers are excavators of holes means that many species have become important as the suppliers of nest-holes for other birds, mammals and even insects. In Europe, for example, Black Woodpecker holes are occupied by Stock Doves and Pygmy Owls. In the deserts of Arizona Elf Owls rely to a great extent on holes made by woodpeckers in cactus stands. Another interesting feature of woodpecker behaviour is that many species also drum rather than sing. Several species also make use of anvils, workshops or a smithy. These terms refer to a place, usually a crevice or notch in a branch, tree-stump or even a wall, where birds wedge items of food such as nuts or pinecones and then hack them open in situget at the contents. And if all these fascinating behavioural traits were not enough many woodpeckers are also strikingly colourful and beautiful birds. The Greater Flameback and Black-headed Woodpecker of Southeast Asia are just two examples. And can you think of a bird with a better name than Yellow-bellied Sapsucker? Have you ever witnessed the fly-catching flight of Lewis`s Woodpecker? Watched a gregarious band of comical-looking Acorn Woodpeckers in action? Yet, all things considered, it is probably the ability of woodpeckers to bore their own nest-holes in trees (and other plants) and their drumming (though not all woodpeckers drum) that really sets then apart. Of course, ornithologists and birders are fond of making cases for the uniqueness of their favourite bird families, but for me the features mentioned above and the morphology and behaviour of these birds combine to make woodpeckers one of the most enigmatic of bird families. Woodpeckers can be regarded as successful birds with the over 200 species being fairly well distributed around the globe though, perhaps not surprisingly, they do not inhabit the treeless regions of the Arctic and Antarctic. However, their absence from some heavily wooded regions such as Australia and Madagascar is perhaps a surprise. Then again some species have adapted to living in sparsely wooded grasslands such as the Nubian Woodpecker on the savanna of East Africa and the Campo Flicker in South America, and in barren stony areas as does the terrestrial Ground Woodpecker in South Africa, and as in the case of Gila Woodpecker even in deserts where there are more cacti than trees. The Neotropics are home to some of the most impressive species including the mighty Magellanic Woodpecker. Though most likely extinct two huge and enigmatic species, Imperial and Ivory-billed, are/were birds to rival any, anywhere. Continental Europe, where I have conducted most of my woodpecker observations, is home to ten species, nine true woodpeckers and the migratory Northern Wryneck. Though I see and hear Black Woodpeckers almost every time I go out into the woods around Budapest I never fail to stop and admire this impressive bird. Gerard Gorman runs trips to much of Eastern Europe and can be contacted on gerard@probirder.com see his website http://www.probirder.com and the author of: Woodpeckers of Europe - A study of the European Picidae - see below for full details. |
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Woodpeckers Picidaehttp://www.eeb.cornell.edu/winkler/botw/picidae.htmlBackground on the 204 species of woodpeckers... Woodpeckers Picidaehttp://www.dosgatos.com/birds/woodpeckers/woodpeckers.htmlSome North American woodpeckers with photos... |
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Acorn Woodpecker Melanerpes formicivorushttp://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/accounts/melanerpes/m._formicivorus$narrative.htmlThe Acorn Woodpecker is found from northwestern Oregon, California, the American Southwest, and western Mexico through the Central American highlands and into the northern Andes of Colombia... Eurasian Wryneck Jynx torquillahttp://www.wbu.com/chipperwoods/photos/wryneck.htmThe Eurasian Wryneck occurs across Europe, temperate boreal Asia, Japan and extreme northern Africa. The individual pictured here was found dead in January 2000 at the Crane Naval Weapons Support Center in southwestern Indiana. Our thanks go to Professor Barny Dunning and grad student Amanda Beheler of Purdue University (see Fig. 10 ) for making this specimen available for study... Great-spotted Woodpecker Dendrocopos majorhttp://www.birdsofbritain.co.uk/bird-guide/g-s-woodpecker.htmIn recent times the great spotted has become the most familiar woodpecker due to regularly visiting bird-tables in observers gardens. This bird is distributed over an immense range covering almost the entire Palearctic from Britain in the west to Japan in the east and reaching North Africa and the Canary Islands in the south-west... Hairy Woodpecker Picoides villosushttp://www.mbr-pwrc.usgs.gov/id/framlst/i3930id.htmlOther black and white woodpeckers such as Ladder-backed, Strickland`s, Red-cockaded and Nuttall`s have shorter bills, barred backs, and patterning on the chests. Black-backed woodpecker is easily distinguished by the darker face, black back, and barred flanks. Three-toed Woodpecker is best distinguished by the darker face and barred flanks, since some races can have white backs... Ivory-billed Woodpecker - IBWFound Updates!http://ibwfound.blogspot.comBobby Harrison, Tim Gallagher and others searched and researched Ivory-bills for over 33 years, they are not going to give up now, even if others do. When Federal funding runs out, we'll still be there. There are so few Ivory-bills, so many acres… Red-cockaded Woodpecker Picoides borealishttp://www.ramas.com/rcw.htmEvaluating the impact of alternative timber management plans on red-cockaded woodpeckers... Red-headed Woodpecker Melanerpes erythrocephalushttp://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/accounts/melanerpes/m._erythrocephalus$narrative.htmlThe red-headed woodpecker is widely distributed throughout most of North America. It ranges east-west from the Rocky Mountains to the Atlantic Ocean, and north-south from Canadian Lake Winnipeg (Manitoba) and southern Ontario, to Texas, the Gulf of Mexico, and Florida. Once a common bird, it now is found sporadically throughout its range. |
contributor |
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Gerard Gorman
Bird Guide & Ornithologist
(Budapest, Hungary)
gerard@probirder.com
http://www.probirder.com
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useful reading |
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In Search of the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker
by Jerome A Jackson 294 pages, colour plates. Smithsonian Institution Press 2004ISBN: 1588341321
Buy this book from NHBS.com
Ivorybill Hunters – The Search for Proof in a Flooded Wilderness
by Geoffrey E Hill OUP April 2007 £14.99ISBN: 9780195323467
Buy this book from NHBS.com
The Red-Cockaded Woodpecker
- Surviving in a Fire Maintained Ecosystem by Richard N Connor, D Craig Rudolph and Jeffery R Walters Series: CORRIE HERRING HOOKS SERIES 49 363 pages, col photos, b/w photos, illus, figs, tabs. University of Texas PressISBN: 0292712340
Buy this book from NHBS.com
Woodpeckers
A Guide to the Woodpeckers, Piculets and Wrynecks of the World by Hans Winkler, David A Christie and David Nurney - Pica Press 1995ISBN: 1873403259
Buy this book from NHBS.com
Woodpeckers of Europe - A study of the European Picidae
by Gerard Gorman, illustrated by Szabolcs K?kay August 2004 Bruce Coleman Books ?35 See Fatbirder ReviewISBN: 1872842054
Buy this book from NHBS.com
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Ivory-billed Woodpecker Conservation
http://www.ivorybill.org/Help us to save the Big Woods and to continue the search for the ivory-billed woodpecker...
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BLOG - Gerard Gorman - European Woodpeckers
http://woodpeckersofeurope.blogspot.comAll about Europe's woodpeckers...
BLOG - Ivory-bills LiVE!!
http://ivorybills.blogspot.com/For the Ivorybilled-obsessed, a blog devoted solely to opinions, news, and commentary on the Ivory-billed Woodpecker (IBWO), by one who's been interested in the species (and confident of its presence) for over four decades. ...ALL Ivory-bills, ALL the time!!
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Common Flameback Dinopium javanense
http://public.fotki.com/paeying/common_flameback/common_flameback.htmlImage
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