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the little drummer boy

great spotted woodpecker (my first one ever! yay!)

 

Drumming - also called tattooing, tapping and rapping - is a woodpecker's act of rapidly pecking on a resonant object to create a pattern of sound.

Unlike other songbirds, woodpeckers do not have a distinctive song as part of their avian vocabulary. Instead, drumming is the way these birds communicate, and woodpeckers will drum for two main reasons: attracting a mate and advertising a territory.

 

In addition to these primary reasons, drumming can also be more localized communication. Mated woodpeckers may use drumming to let one another know about a food source or to summon help at the nest. A woodpecker may also drum to raise an alarm about a predator lurking nearby.

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Uploaded on March 16, 2018
Taken on March 16, 2018