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The pintail or northern pintail (Anas acuta) is a duck with wide geographic distribution that breeds in the northern areas of Europe, Asia and North America. It is migratory and winters south of its breeding range to the equator. Unusually for a bird with such a large range, it has no geographical subspecies if the possibly conspecific duck Eaton's pintail is considered to be a separate species.
This is a large duck, and the male's long central tail feathers give rise to the species' English and scientific names. Both sexes have blue-grey bills and grey legs and feet. The drake is more striking, having a thin white stripe running from the back of its chocolate-coloured head down its neck to its mostly white undercarriage. The drake also has attractive grey, brown, and black patterning on its back and sides. The hen's plumage is more subtle and subdued, with drab brown feathers similar to those of other female dabbling ducks. Hens make a coarse quack and the drakes a flute-like whistle.
The northern pintail is a bird of open wetlands which nests on the ground, often some distance from water. It feeds by dabbling for plant food and adds small invertebrates to its diet during the nesting season. It is highly gregarious when not breeding, forming large mixed flocks with other species of duck. This duck's population is affected by predators, parasites and avian diseases. Human activities, such as agriculture, hunting and fishing, have also had a significant impact on numbers. Nevertheless, owed to the huge range and large population of this species, it is not threatened globally.
Taxonomy:
This species was first described by Linnaeus in his Systema naturae in 1758 as Anas acuta.[2] The scientific name comes from two Latin words: anas, meaning "duck", and acuta, which comes from the verb acuere, "to sharpen"; the species term, like the English name, refers to the pointed tail of the male in breeding plumage.[3] Within the large dabbling duck genus Anas,[2] the northern pintail's closest relatives are other pintails, such as the yellow-billed pintail (A. georgica) and Eaton's pintail (A. eatoni). The pintails are sometimes separated in the genus Dafila (described by Stephens, 1824), an arrangement supported by morphological, molecular and behavioural data.[4][5][6] The famous British ornithologist Sir Peter Scott gave this name to his daughter, the artist Dafila Scott.[7]
Eaton's pintail has two subspecies, A. e. eatoni (the Kerguelen pintail) of Kerguelen Islands, and A. e. drygalskyi (the Crozet pintail) of Crozet Islands, and was formerly considered conspecific with the northern hemisphere's northern pintail. Sexual dimorphism is much less marked in the southern pintails, with the male's breeding appearance being similar to the female plumage. Unusually for a species with such a large range, northern pintail has no geographical subspecies if Eaton's pintail is treated as a separate species.[8] A claimed extinct subspecies from Manra Island, Tristram's pintail, A. a. modesta, appears to be indistinguishable from the nominate form.[9]
Description:
The northern pintail is a fairly large duck with a wing chord of 23.6–28.2 cm (9.3–11.1 in) and wingspan of 80–95 cm (31–37 in).[10] The male is 59–76 cm (23–30 in) in length and weighs 450–1,360 g (0.99–3.00 lb), and therefore is considerably larger than the female, which is 51–64 cm (20–25 in) long and weighs 454–1,135 g (1.001–2.502 lb).[11] The northern pintail broadly overlaps in size with the similarly-widespread mallard, but is more slender, elongated and gracile, with a relatively longer neck and (in males) a longer tail. The unmistakable breeding plumaged male has a chocolate-brown head and white breast with a white stripe extending up the side of the neck. Its upperparts and sides are grey, but elongated grey feathers with black central stripes are draped across the back from the shoulder area. The vent area is yellow, contrasting with the black underside of the tail,[8] which has the central feathers elongated to as much as 10 cm (3.9 in). The bill is bluish and the legs are blue-grey.[12]
The adult female is mainly scalloped and mottled in light brown with a more uniformly grey-brown head, and its pointed tail is shorter than the male's; it is still easily identified by its shape, long neck, and long grey bill.[8] In non-breeding (eclipse) plumage, the drake pintail looks similar to the female, but retains the male upperwing pattern and long grey shoulder feathers. Juvenile birds resemble the female, but are less neatly scalloped and have a duller brown speculum with a narrower trailing edge.[13]
The pintail walks well on land, and swims well.[8] It has a very fast flight, with its wings slightly swept-back, rather than straight out from the body like other ducks. In flight, the male shows a black speculum bordered white at the rear and pale rufous at the front, whereas the female's speculum is dark brown bordered with white, narrowly at the front edge but very prominently at the rear, being visible at a distance of 1,600 m (0.99 mi).[13]
The male's call is a soft proop-proop whistle, similar to that of the common teal, whereas the female has a mallard-like descending quack, and a low croak when flushed.[8]
Distribution and Habitat:
This dabbling duck breeds across northern areas of Eurasia south to about Poland and Mongolia,[11] and in Canada, Alaska and the Midwestern United States. Mainly in winters south of its breeding range, reaches almost to the equator in Panama, northern sub-Saharan Africa and tropical South Asia. Small numbers migrate to Pacific islands, particularly Hawaii, where a few hundred birds winter on the main islands in shallow wetlands and flooded agricultural habitats.[8] Transoceanic journeys also occur: a bird that was caught and ringed in Labrador, Canada, was shot by a hunter in England nine days later,[11] and Japanese-ringed birds have been recovered from six US states east to Utah and Mississippi.[14] In parts of the range, such as Great Britain and the northwestern United States, the pintail may be present all year.[13][15]
The northern pintail's breeding habitat is open unwooded wetlands, such as wet grassland, lakesides or tundra. In winter, it will utilise a wider range of open habitats, such as sheltered estuaries, brackish marshes and coastal lagoons. It is highly gregarious outside the breeding season and forms very large mixed flocks with other ducks.[8]
Behaviour:
Breeding:
Both sexes reach sexual maturity at one year of age. The male mates with the female by swimming close to her with his head lowered and tail raised, continually whistling. If there is a group of males, they will chase the female in flight until only one drake is left. The female prepares for copulation, which takes place in the water, by lowering her body; the male then bobs his head up and down and mounts the female, taking the feathers on the back of her head in his mouth. After mating, he raises his head and back and whistles.[11]
Breeding takes place between April and June, with the nest being constructed on the ground and hidden amongst vegetation in a dry location, often some distance from water. It is a shallow scrape on the ground lined with plant material and down.[8] The female lays seven to nine cream-coloured eggs at the rate of one per day;[11] the eggs are 55 mm × 38 mm (2.2 in × 1.5 in) in size and weigh 45 g (1.6 oz), of which 7% is shell.[16] If predators destroy the first clutch, the female can produce a replacement clutch as late as the end of July.[11] The hen alone incubates the eggs for 22 to 24 days before they hatch. The precocial downy chicks are then led by the female to the nearest body of water, where they feed on dead insects on the water surface. The chicks fledge in 46 to 47 days after hatching, but stay with the female until she has completed moulting.[11]
Around three-quarters of chicks live long enough to fledge, but not more than half of those survive long enough to reproduce.[11] The maximum recorded age is 27 years and 5 months for a Dutch bird.[16]
Feeding:
The pintail feeds by dabbling and upending in shallow water for plant food mainly in the evening or at night, and therefore spends much of the day resting.[8] Its long neck enables it to take food items from the bottom of water bodies up to 30 cm (12 in) deep, which are beyond the reach of other dabbling ducks like the Mallard.[12]
The winter diet is mainly plant material including seeds and rhizomes of aquatic plants, but the pintail sometimes feeds on roots, grain and other seeds in fields, though less frequently than other Anas ducks.[12] During the nesting season, this bird eats mainly invertebrate animals, including aquatic insects, molluscs and crustaceans.[11]
Health:
Pintail nests and chicks are vulnerable to predation by mammals, such as foxes and badgers, and birds like gulls, crows and magpies. The adults can take flight to escape terrestrial predators, but nesting females in particular may be surprised by large carnivores such as bobcats.[11] Large birds of prey, such as northern goshawks, will take ducks from the ground, and some falcons, including the gyrfalcon, have the speed and power to catch flying birds.[17]
It is susceptible to a range of parasites including Cryptosporidium, Giardia, tapeworms, blood parasites and external feather lice,[18][19][20][21] and is also affected by other avian diseases. It is often the dominant species in major mortality events from avian botulism and avian cholera,[22] and can also contract avian influenza, the H5N1 strain of which is highly pathogenic and occasionally infects humans.[23]
The northern pintail is a popular species for game shooting because of its speed, agility, and excellent eating qualities, and is hunted across its range.[24][25] Although one of the world's most numerous ducks,[16] the combination of hunting with other factors has led to population declines, and local restrictions on hunting have been introduced at times to help conserve numbers.[26]
This species' preferred habitat of shallow water is naturally susceptible to problems such as drought or the encroachment of vegetation, but this duck's habitat might be increasingly threatened by climate change.[16] Populations are also affected by the conversion of wetlands and grassland to arable crops, depriving the duck of feeding and nesting areas. Spring planting means that many nests of this early breeding duck are destroyed by farming activities,[27] and a Canadian study showed that more than half of the surveyed nests were destroyed by agricultural work such as ploughing and harrowing.[28]
Hunting with lead shot, along with the use of lead sinkers in angling, has been identified as a major cause of lead poisoning in waterfowl, which often feed off the bottom of lakes and wetlands where the shot collects.[29] A Spanish study showed that northern pintail and common pochard were the species with the highest levels of lead shot ingestion, higher than in northern countries of the western Palearctic flyway, where lead shot has been banned.[30] In the United States, Canada, and many western European countries, all shot used for waterfowl must now be non-toxic, and therefore may not contain any lead.[31][32][33]
Status:
The northern pintail has a large range, estimated at 28,400,000 km2 (11,000,000 sq mi), and a population estimated at 5.3–5.4 million individuals.[34] It is therefore not believed to meet the IUCN Red List threshold criterion of a population decline of more than 30% in ten years or three generations, and is evaluated as Least Concern.
In the Palaearctic, breeding populations are declining in much of the range, including its stronghold in Russia. In other regions, populations are stable or fluctuating.[35]
Pintails in North America at least have been badly affected by avian diseases, with the breeding population falling from more than 10 million in 1957 to 3.5 million by 1964. Although the species has recovered from that low point, the breeding population in 1999 was 30% below the long-term average, despite years of major efforts focused on restoring the species. In 1997, an estimated 1.5 million water birds, the majority being northern pintails, died from avian botulism during two outbreaks in Canada and Utah.[22]
The northern pintail is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA) applies,[36] but it has no special status under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), which regulates international trade in specimens of wild animals and plants.[11]
References:
BirdLife International (2013). "Anas acuta". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2013.2. International Union for Conservation of Nature. Retrieved 26 November 2013.
a b Linnaeus, Carolus (1758). Systema naturae per regna tria naturae, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis. Tomus I. Editio decima, reformata. (in Latin). Holmiae [Stockholm]: Laurentii Salvii. p. 126. A. cauda acuminata elongata subtus nigra, occipite utrinque linea alba
^ Jobling, James A (2010). The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names. London: Christopher Helm. pp. 31, 46. ISBN 978-1-4081-2501-4.
^ Johnson, Kevin P.; Sorenson, Michael D. (1999). "Phylogeny and biogeography of dabbling ducks (genus Anas): a comparison of molecular and morphological evidence" (PDF). The Auk. 116 (3): 792–805. doi:10.2307/4089339.
^ Johnson, Kevin P.; McKinney, Frank; Wilson, Robert; Sorenson, Michael D. (2000). "The evolution of postcopulatory displays in dabbling ducks (Anatini): a phylogenetic perspective" (PDF). Animal Behaviour. 59 (5): 953–963. PMID 10860522. doi:10.1006/anbe.1999.1399. Archived from the original (PDF) on 5 January 2006.
^ Livezey, B.C. (1991). "A phylogenetic analysis and classification of recent dabbling ducks (Tribe Anatini) based on comparative morphology" (PDF). The Auk. 108 (3): 471–507. JSTOR 4088089. doi:10.2307/4088089.
^ "Dafila Scott". Society of Wildlife Artists. Archived from the original on 16 July 2011. Retrieved 16 January 2008.
a b c d e f g h i Madge, Steve; Burn, Hilary (1988). Wildfowl: An Identification Guide to the Ducks, Geese and Swans of the World (Helm Identification Guides). Christopher Helm. pp. 222–224. ISBN 0-7470-2201-1.
^ Hume, Julian P.; Walters, Michael (2012). Extinct Birds. London: Poyser. p. 50. ISBN 1-4081-5725-X.
^ del Hoyo, J.; Elliott, A.; Sargatal, J., eds. (1992). Handbook of the Birds of the World. Volume 1: Ostrich to Ducks. Barcelona: Lynx Edicions.
a b c d e f g h i j k Robinson, Jerry (2002). Johansson, Carl, ed. "Anas acuta". Animal Diversity Web. University of Michigan Museum of Zoology. Retrieved 13 January 2008.
a b c Gooders, John; Boyer, Trevor (1997). Ducks of Britain and the Northern Hemisphere. Collins & Brown. pp. 58–61. ISBN 1-85585-570-4.
a b c Mullarney, Killian; Svensson, Lars; Zetterstrom, Dan; Grant, Peter (2001). Birds of Europe. Princeton University Press. pp. 48–49. ISBN 0-691-05054-6.
^ Towell, Larry (23 January 2008). "From Tokyo to Tupelo". ESPN Outdoors News. ESPN Outdoors. Archived from the original on 1 September 2009. Retrieved 23 January 2008.
^ "Northern Pintail". All About Birds. Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Retrieved 14 January 2008.
a b c d Robinson, R.A. (2005). "Pintail Anas acuta [Linnaeus, 1758]". BirdFacts: profiles of birds occurring in Britain & Ireland (BTO Research Report 407). British Trust for Ornithology. Retrieved 13 January 2008.
^ Forsman, Dick (2008). The Raptors of Europe & the Middle East: A Handbook of Field Identification. Princeton University Press. pp. 21–25. ISBN 0-85661-098-4.
^ Kuhn, Ryan C.; Rock, Channah M.; Oshima, Kevin H. (January 2002). "Occurrence of Cryptosporidium and Giardia in Wild Ducks along the Rio Grande River Valley in Southern New Mexico". Applied and Environmental Microbiology. 68 (1): 161–165. PMC 126547 Freely accessible. PMID 11772622. doi:10.1128/AEM.68.1.161-165.2002.
^ "Cotugnia fastigata". Parasite species summary page. Retrieved 14 January 2008.
^ Williams, N.A.; Calverley, B.K.; Mahrt, J.L. (1977). "Blood parasites of mallard and pintail ducks from central Alberta and the Mackenzie Delta, Northwest Territories" (PDF). Journal of Wildlife Diseases. 13 (3): 226–229. PMID 410954. doi:10.7589/0090-3558-13.3.226.
^ "Feather Lice Infection in Waterfowl". Wildpro - the electronic encyclopaedia and library for wildlife. Retrieved 14 January 2008.
a b Friend, Milton; McLean, Robert G.; Dein, F. Joshua (April 2001). "Disease emergence in birds: Challenges for the twenty-first century". The Auk. 118 (2): 290–303. doi:10.1642/0004-8038(2001)118[0290:DEIBCF]2.0.CO;2.
^ "Avian influenza tests complete on wild northern pintail ducks in Montana". News release No. 0402.06. U.S. Department of Agriculture. Retrieved 14 January 2008.
^ Marrone, Teresa (2000). Dressing & Cooking Wild Game (Complete Hunter). Creative Publishing International. p. 123. ISBN 0-86573-108-X.
^ Cocker, Mark; Mabey, Richard (2005). Birds Britannica. London: Chatto & Windus. p. 97. ISBN 0-7011-6907-9.
^ "U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Proposes Duck Hunting Regulations, Limited Canvasback Season Re-Opened". News Release 1 August 2003. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Archived from the original on 20 August 2007. Retrieved 15 January 2008.
^ "Losing ground: The top 10 common birds in decline" (PDF). Common birds in decline; a state of the birds report, summer 2007. Audubon. Retrieved 15 January 2008.
^ "Index of Species Information". Wildlife species: Anas acuta. USDA Forest Service. Retrieved 15 January 2008.
^ Scheuhammer, A.M.; Norris, S.L. (1996). "The ecotoxicology of lead shot and lead fishing weights". Ecotoxicology. 5 (5): 279–295. PMID 24193869. doi:10.1007/BF00119051.
^ Mateo, Rafael; Martínez-Vilalta, Albert; Guitart, Raimon (1997). "Lead shot pellets in the Ebro delta, Spain: Densities in sediments and prevalence of exposure in waterfowl". Environmental Pollution. 96 (3): 335–341. PMID 15093399. doi:10.1016/S0269-7491(97)00046-8.
^ "Service continues to expand non-toxic shot options". U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. 25 October 2000. Retrieved 15 January 2008.
^ "Crunch time for lead shot ban". New Scientist. 5 April 1997. Retrieved 15 January 2008.
^ "Lead & Non-Lead Shot". British Association for Shooting and Conservation. Archived from the original on 25 May 2006. Retrieved 15 January 2008.
^ "Northern Pintail Anas acuta". BirdLife International. Retrieved 16 April 2011.
^ Snow, David; Perrins, Christopher M., eds. (1998). The Birds of the Western Palearctic concise edition (2 volumes). Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 222–225. ISBN 0-19-854099-X.
^ "Anas acuta". Agreement on the conservation of African-Eurasian migratory Waterbirds (AEWA). AEWA. Retrieved 12 February 2015.
This Robin seemed a little nervous, not sure if it was another rival or a Sparrow Hawk that has been known to visit the area.
Jan 5 005/366
Rassi is a very social cat - He loves attention!!
(I stuck my hand in the picture so I could use it for 365, if I needed to, LOL!!)
Recently i got a call from one of my friend stating that one of my photograph is in website(given below)
www.asiapacifictravel.vn/tours/indochina_travel/india_tou...
I was quite stunned while see that image in a website of a company which is operating from Vietnam, I never expect money for using my photograph but atleast a permission through mail or mobile, even i entered my mobile number in the profile page. I was quite surprised Flickr is almost a giant in web industry don't they have watch dog to monitor such image thefts. I don't know how many of your images are glittering in the websites without your permission.
For you reference find the image below.
Thanks
Raja
Four people have been arrested in raids as part of an operation to crackdown on drug dealing and organised crime in Tameside.
They were arrested when officers from Greater Manchester Police raided nine addresses just after 7am today, Wednesday 4 June 2014.
Officers from Tameside’s neighbourhood policing teams launched the operation, codenamed Operation Suffield, as their response to the growing problem of drugs in the area.
These arrests came after months of investigations by officers from the Tameside division and Serious Crime Division into the distribution of heroin and crack cocaine.
In the raids this morning, four men were arrested on suspicion of drugs offences after officers executed warrants across the Hattersley area of Tameside.
More than 70 officers were involved in the raids and included officers from the neighbourhood policing teams, Serious Crime Division, tactical aid units and dog handlers.
Extra officers from Tameside’s Neighbourhood Policing Teams will be patrolling the area for today and the next few days to provide a visible presence and reassurance to the community.
Detective Inspector John Charlton for Tameside Division, said: “Today shows that the desire to rid our communities of the blight of drugs is continuous and we will go back and keep tackling the issue in the same area as many times as necessary until the problem is dealt with.
“This operation has taken months of intricate planning and dedication by a large team of officers from across the Force and the National Crime Agency.
“Communities have told us that they want drugs and drug dealing tackled across the borough and I hope that today’s action highlights how seriously we take these crimes.
“It also sends a message out that we will not let people profit from spreading their misery in our neighbourhoods and we will continue to use all the powers and resources available to put people before the courts.”
If you have information on anyone who may be committing crime in your area, please call police on 101 or 0161 872 5050 or for more information visit gmp.police.uk.
People with any concerns can contact your Neighbourhood Policing Team directly about any issues related to crime or anti-social behaviour on:
Tameside Neighbourhood Policing Team on 0161 856 9350.
You can also call anonymously with information about crime to Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111. Crimestoppers is an independent charity who will not want your name, just your information. Your call will not be traced or recorded and you do not have to go to court or give a statement.
The hole in the soil was made by voles intent on stripping the covering from my car's central controller (allows the roof to fold down and rise, also the windows to go up and down!). Only cost me £500 to replace ;'-0
Anyway ... the wasp appeared to be digging in a new direction ... wonder if it was nesting? Strange!
Museum of Modern Art De Pont, Tilburg, The Netherlands.
Part of the Museum Behaviour series bit.ly/H0skbp
Behaving to type and following a leader. Sheep are sheared at this time of year to avoid heatstroke and combat parasites. I’m sure ewe knew that already.
I watched a Fries goby dance around the mud in 25m of water in Loch Fyne creating this pattern in an attempt to attract a mate. Its the first time I noticed this unusual behaviour. There is a slender seapen in the bottom right hand corner and at one oclock to act as a sense of scale. The image is a plan view the central bit is slightly raised. Unfortunately the fish noticed I was watching and soon disappeared into a hole
There were lots of bees and wasps on the sunny side of a fountain. I presume they were eating the algae that was growing at the edge of the water rather than drinking the water. Thanks for your comments - so they are drinking the water then.
August 2016
All rights reserved. This photo is not authorized for use on your blogs, pin boards, websites or use in any other way without specific written permission.
Here are some photos from my trip to Donna Nook, November 2009. Donna Nook is a place about 20 miles south of Grimsby, Lincolnshire UK on the North Sea coast. Grey Seals come ashore in large numbers to mate and give birth to live young. I've photographed a a few different aspects of seal behaviour.
Aggressive behaviour
This is one of my favourite photos. What do you think of it?
A Fabulous Plumbeous Silverline Butterfly taken at Muthurajawela Marsh, Colombo, Sri Lanka on the 11th February 2012.
Many thanks go to Saranga Deva De Alwis (aka: Sara-D) for the ID.
One of the most attractive / amazing butterflies i've ever seen! It kept rotating the four tails in a circular manner which kind of makes them look like some sort of separate creature (when I first saw the butterfly, I thought it had been caught by another insect and was being eaten!) presumably the behaviour is to distract predators from it's head?
Latest from Fattercrombie & Fitch: crimson turtleneck and light beige trousers.
[Uploaded using Charlie 1.60]
Our largest deer, males have large, branching antlers, increasing in size as they get older. During the autumnal breeding season, known as the 'rut', males bellow to proclaim their territory and will fight over the females, sometimes injuring each other with their sharp antlers. Red Deer live on moorland and mountainsides, as well as grasslands near to woodland. They can be seen in deer parks throughout the country.
Behaviour
Red Deer are dark russet-brown in colour, with a paler buff rump patch and a pale tail. Look out for herds of large, sturdy deer with branching antlers.
Size
Length: 1.7-2.6m Height: 1.2m at the shoulder Weight: 100-340kg Average lifespan: 16-18 years
Fair question! I suppose I'm looking at a ruddy turnstone. Sure, I've seen them before. They were all wild, living off their wits, spread out.
Here there are flocks. Not just flocks. Flocks of habituated urban birds scrabbling for crumbs; scraps of a livelihood. I'm cautious of them about my feet they are so ingenuous.
I can't say I like this experience. I don't suppose these birds were trained for this lifestyle. Instead they've likely evolved behaviours; adapting to the economy of scrounging in a tourist-popular fishing port. They don't add to the scene in the way they do on a wild coast.
Oh well, this is another thing to note down and move on. I have St Ives for a short while and I'm not keen to waste it on what were once shorebirds.
হরতনি | Common Jezebel (Delias eucharis)
Nomadic in behaviour and are found in Southeast Asia. It has bright colouration that it is unpalatable due to toxins accumulated by the larvae from the host-plants.
Family:Pieridae
Garpanchakot Forest
Butterflies of Bengal, India
Magic of dof @ f/1.4
Woodpeckers are part of the bird family Picidae, which also includes the piculets, wrynecks and sapsuckers. Members of this family are found worldwide, except for Australia, New Guinea, New Zealand, Madagascar and the extreme polar regions. Most species live in forests or woodland habitats, although a few species are known that live in treeless areas, such as rocky hillsides and deserts, and the Gila woodpecker specialises in exploiting cacti.
Members of this family are chiefly known for their characteristic behaviour. They mostly forage for insect prey on the trunks and branches of trees, and often communicate by drumming with their beaks, producing a reverberatory sound that can be heard at some distance. Some species vary their diet with fruits, birds' eggs, small animals, tree sap, human scraps, and carrion. They usually nest and roost in holes that they excavate in tree trunks, and their abandoned holes are of importance to other cavity-nesting birds. They sometimes come into conflict with humans when they make holes in buildings or feed on fruit crops, but perform a useful service by their removal of insect pests on trees.
The Picidae are one of nine living families in the order Piciformes, the others being barbets (comprising three families), toucans, toucan-barbets, and honeyguides, which (along with woodpeckers) comprise the clade Pici, and the jacamars and puffbirds in the clade Galbuli. DNA sequencing has confirmed the sister relationships of these two groups. The family Picidae includes about 240 species arranged in 35 genera. Almost 20 species are threatened with extinction due to loss of habitat or habitat fragmentation, with one, the Bermuda flicker, being extinct and a further two possibly being so.
General characteristics
Woodpeckers include the tiny piculets, the smallest of which appears to be the bar-breasted piculet at 7.5 cm (3.0 in) in length and a weight of 8.9 g (0.31 oz). Some of the largest woodpeckers can be more than 50 cm (20 in) in length. The largest surviving species is the great slaty woodpecker, which weighs 430 g (15 oz) on average and up to 563 g (19.9 oz), and measures 45 to 55 cm (18 to 22 in), but the extinct imperial woodpecker, at 55 to 61 cm (22 to 24 in), and ivory-billed woodpecker, around 48 to 53 cm (19 to 21 in) and 516 g (18.2 oz), were probably both larger.
The plumage of woodpeckers varies from drab to conspicuous. The colours of many species are based on olive and brown and some are pied, suggesting a need for camouflage; others are boldly patterned in black, white, and red, and many have a crest or tufted feathers on their crowns. Woodpeckers tend to be sexually dimorphic, but differences between the sexes are generally small; exceptions to this are Williamson's sapsucker and the orange-backed woodpecker, which differ markedly. The plumage is moulted fully once a year apart from the wrynecks, which have an additional partial moult before breeding.
Woodpeckers, piculets, and wrynecks all possess characteristic zygodactyl feet, consisting of four toes, the first (hallux) and the fourth facing backward and the second and third facing forward. This foot arrangement is good for grasping the limbs and trunks of trees. Members of this family can walk vertically up tree trunks, which is beneficial for activities such as foraging for food or nest excavation. In addition to their strong claws and feet, woodpeckers have short, strong legs. This is typical of birds that regularly forage on trunks. Exceptions are the black-backed woodpecker and the American and Eurasian three-toed woodpeckers, which have only three toes on each foot. The tails of all woodpeckers, except the piculets and wrynecks, are stiffened, and when the bird perches on a vertical surface, the tail and feet work together to support it.
Woodpeckers have strong bills that they use for drilling and drumming on trees, and long, sticky tongues for extracting food (insects and larvae). Woodpecker bills are typically longer, sharper, and stronger than the bills of piculets and wrynecks, but their morphology is very similar. The bill's chisel-like tip is kept sharp by the pecking action in birds that regularly use it on wood. The beak consists of three layers; an outer sheath called rhamphotheca, made of scales formed from keratin proteins, an inner layer of bone which has a large cavity and mineralised collagen fibers, and a middle layer made of porous bone which connects the two other layers.
Furthermore, the tongue bone (or hyoid bone) of the woodpecker is very long, and winds around the skull through a special cavity, thereby cushioning the brain. Combined, this anatomy helps the beak absorb mechanical stress. Species of woodpecker and flicker that use their bills in soil or for probing as opposed to regular hammering tend to have longer and more decurved bills. Due to their smaller bill size, many piculets and wrynecks forage in decaying wood more often than woodpeckers. Their long, sticky tongues, which possess bristles, aid these birds in grabbing and extracting insects from deep within a hole in a tree. The tongue was reported to be used to spear grubs, but more detailed studies published in 2004 have shown that the tongue instead wraps around the prey before being pulled out.
Diagram showing the hyoid bone of Dendrocopos major
Many of the foraging, breeding, and signaling behaviors of woodpeckers involve drumming and hammering using their bills. To prevent brain damage from the rapid and repeated powerful impacts, woodpeckers have a number of physical features that protect their brains. These include a relatively small and smooth brain, narrow subdural space, little cerebrospinal fluid surrounding it to prevent it from moving back and forth inside the skull during pecking, the orientation of the brain within the skull (which maximises the contact area between the brain and the skull) and the short duration of contact. The skull consists of strong but compressible, sponge-like bone, which is most concentrated in the forehead and the back of the skull. Another anatomical adaptation of woodpeckers is the enormously elongated hyoid bone which subdivides, passes on either side of the spinal column and wraps around the brain case, before ending in the right nostril cavity. It plays the role of safety-belt.
Computer simulations have shown that 99.7% of the energy generated in pecking is stored in the form of strain energy, which is distributed throughout the bird's body, with only a small remaining fraction of the energy going into the brain. The pecking also causes the woodpecker's skull to heat up, which is part of the reason why they often peck in short bursts with brief breaks in between, giving the head some time to cool. During the millisecond before contact with wood, a thickened nictitating membrane closes, protecting the eye from flying debris.[ These membranes also prevent the retina from tearing. Their nostrils are also protected; they are often slit-like and have special feathers to cover them. Woodpeckers are capable of repeated pecking on a tree at high decelerations on the order of 10,000 m/s2 (33,000 ft/s2) (1000 g).[
Some large woodpeckers such as Dryocopus have a fast, direct form of flight, but the majority of species have a typical undulating flight pattern consisting of a series of rapid flaps followed by a swooping glide. Many birds in the genus Melanerpes have distinctive, rowing wing-strokes while the piculets engage in short bursts of rapid direct flight.
Distribution, habitat, and movements
Woodpeckers have a mostly cosmopolitan distribution, although they are absent from Australasia, Madagascar, and Antarctica. They are also absent from some of the world's oceanic islands, although many insular species are found on continental islands. The true woodpeckers, subfamily Picinae, are distributed across the entire range of the family. The Picumninae piculets have a pantropical distribution, with species in Southeast Asia, Africa, and the Neotropics, with the greatest diversity being in South America. The second piculet subfamily, the Sasiinae, contains the African piculet and two species in the genus Sasia that are found in Southeast Asia. The wrynecks (Jynginae) are found exclusively in the Old World, with the two species occurring in Europe, Asia, and Africa.
Most woodpeckers are sedentary, but a few examples of migratory species are known, such as the rufous-bellied woodpecker, yellow-bellied sapsucker, and Eurasian wryneck, which breeds in Europe and west Asia and migrates to the Sahel in Africa in the winter. More northerly populations of Lewis's woodpecker, northern flicker, Williamson's sapsucker, red-breasted sapsucker, and red-naped sapsucker all move southwards in the fall in North America. Most woodpecker movements can be described as dispersive, such as when young birds seek territories after fledging, or eruptive, to escape harsh weather conditions. Several species are altitudinal migrants, for example the grey-capped pygmy woodpecker, which moves to lowlands from hills during winter. The woodpeckers that do migrate, do so during the day.
Habitat requirements
Overall, woodpeckers are arboreal birds of wooded habitats. They reach their greatest diversity in tropical rainforests, but occur in almost all suitable habitats, including woodlands, savannahs, scrublands, and bamboo forests. Even grasslands and deserts have been colonised by various species. These habitats are more easily occupied where a small number of trees exist, or in the case of desert species like the Gila woodpecker, tall cacti are available for nesting. Some are specialists and are associated with coniferous or deciduous woodlands, or even, like the acorn woodpecker, with individual tree genera (oaks in this case). Other species are generalists and are able to adapt to forest clearance by exploiting secondary growth, plantations, orchards, and parks. In general, forest-dwelling species need rotting or dead wood on which to forage.
Several species are adapted to spending a portion of their time feeding on the ground, and a very small minority have abandoned trees entirely and nest in holes in the ground. The ground woodpecker is one such species, inhabiting the rocky and grassy hills of South Africa, and the Andean flicker is another.
The Swiss Ornithological Institute has set up a monitoring program to record breeding populations of woodland birds. This has shown that deadwood is an important habitat requirement for the black woodpecker, great spotted woodpecker, middle spotted woodpecker, lesser spotted woodpecker, European green woodpecker, and Eurasian three-toed woodpecker. Populations of all these species increased by varying amounts from 1990 to 2008. During this period, the amount of deadwood in the forest increased and the range of the white-backed woodpecker enlarged as it extended eastwards. With the exception of the green and middle-spotted woodpeckers, the increase in the amount of deadwood is likely to be the major factor explaining the population increase of these species.
Behavior
Most woodpeckers live solitary lives, but their behavior ranges from highly antisocial species that are aggressive towards their own kind, to species that live in groups. Solitary species defend such feeding resources as a termite colony or fruit-laden tree, driving away other conspecifics and returning frequently until the resource is exhausted. Aggressive behaviors include bill pointing and jabbing, head shaking, wing flicking, chasing, drumming, and vocalizations. Ritual actions do not usually result in contact, and birds may "freeze" for a while before they resume their dispute. The colored patches may be flouted, and in some instances, these antagonistic behaviors resemble courtship rituals.
Group-living species tend to be communal group breeders.[25] In addition to these species, a number of species may join mixed-species foraging flocks with other insectivorous birds, although they tend to stay at the edges of these groups. Joining these flocks allows woodpeckers to decrease their anti-predator vigilance and increase their feeding rate. Woodpeckers are diurnal, roosting at night inside holes and crevices. In many species the roost will become the nest-site during the breeding season, but in some species they have separate functions; the grey-and-buff woodpecker makes several shallow holes for roosting which are quite distinct from its nesting site. Most birds roost alone and will oust intruders from their chosen site, but the Magellanic woodpecker and acorn woodpecker are cooperative roosters.
Drumming is a form of nonvocal communication used by most species of woodpeckers, and involves the bill being repeatedly struck on a hard surface with great rapidity. After a pause, the drum roll is repeated, with each species having a pattern that is unique in the number of beats in the roll, the length of the roll, the length of the gap between rolls, and the cadence. The drumming is mainly a territorial call, equivalent to the song of a passerine. Woodpeckers choose a surface that resonates, such as a hollow tree, and may use man-made structures such as gutters and downpipes. Drumming serves for the mutual recognition of conspecifics and plays a part in courtship rituals. Individual birds are thought to be able to distinguish the drumming of their mates and those of their neighbors. Drumming can be reliably used to distinguish between multiple species in a region, even if those species are phenotypically similar. Cadence (or the mean number of drum beats per second) is heavily conserved within species. Comparative analyses within species between distant geographic populations have shown that cadence is heavily conserved across species' respective ranges, indicating that there likely are not 'dialects' as seen in passerine song. Drumming in woodpeckers is controlled by a set of nuclei in the forebrain that closely resemble the brain regions that underlie song learning and production in many songbirds. A 2023 study revealed a strong association between extractive foraging and relative brain size across the Family Picidae, indicating that a larger brain does not necessarily result in more powerful drumming abilities, but is implicated in foraging behaviors, as the act of sensing and retrieving wood-boring larvae from woody substrates likely requires an increase in sensory and motor control capabilities.
Calls
Woodpeckers do not have such a wide range of songs and calls as do passerine birds, and the sounds they make tend to be simpler in structure. Calls produced include brief, high-pitched notes, trills, rattles, twittering, whistling, chattering, nasal churrs, screams, and wails. These calls are used by both sexes in communication and are related to the circumstances of the occasion; these include courtship, territorial disputes, and alarm calls. Each species has its own range of calls, which tend to be in the 1.0 to 2.5 kHz range for efficient transmission through forested environments. Mated couples may exchange muted, low-pitched calls, and nestlings often issue noisy begging calls from inside their nest cavity. The wrynecks have a more musical song, and in some areas, the song of the newly arrived Eurasian wryneck is considered to be the harbinger of spring. The piculets either have a song consisting of a long, descending trill, or a descending series of two to six (sometimes more) individual notes, and this song alerts ornithologists to the presence of the birds, as they are easily overlooked.
Diet and feeding
Most woodpecker species feed on insects and other invertebrates living under bark and in wood, but overall, the family is characterized by its dietary flexibility, with many species being both highly omnivorous and opportunistic. The diet includes ants, termites, beetles and their larvae, caterpillars, spiders, other arthropods, bird eggs, nestlings, small rodents, lizards, fruit, nuts, and sap. Many insects and their grubs are taken from living and dead trees by excavation. The bird may hear sounds from inside the timber indicating where creating a hole would be productive. Crustaceans, molluscs, and carrion may be eaten by some species, including the great spotted woodpecker, and bird feeders are visited for suet and domestic scraps.
Other means are also used to garner prey. Some species, such as the red-naped sapsucker, sally into the air to catch flying insects, and many species probe into crevices and under bark, or glean prey from leaves and twigs. The rufous woodpecker specialises in attacking the nests of arboreal ants, and the buff-spotted woodpecker feeds on and nests in termite mounds. Other species, such as the wrynecks and the Andean flicker, feed wholly or partly on the ground.
Ecologically, woodpeckers help to keep trees healthy by keeping them from suffering mass infestations. The family is noted for its ability to acquire wood-boring grubs from the trunks and branches, whether the timber is alive or dead. Having hammered a hole into the wood, the prey is extracted by use of a long, barbed tongue. Woodpeckers consume beetles that burrow into trees, removing as many as 85% of emerald ash borer larvae from individual ash trees.
The ability to excavate allows woodpeckers to obtain tree sap, an important source of food for some species. Most famously, the sapsuckers (genus Sphyrapicus) feed in this fashion, but the technique is not restricted to these, and others such as the acorn woodpecker and white-headed woodpecker also feed on sap. The technique was once thought to be restricted to the New World, but Old World species, such as the Arabian woodpecker and great spotted woodpecker, also feed in this way.
Breeding
All members of the family Picidae nest in cavities, nearly always in the trunks and branches of trees, well away from the foliage. Where possible, an area of rotten wood surrounded by sound timber is used. Where trees are in short supply, the gilded flicker and ladder-backed woodpecker excavate holes in cactus, and the Andean flicker and ground woodpecker dig holes in earth banks. The campo flicker sometimes chooses termite mounds, the rufous woodpecker prefers to use ants' nests in trees and the bamboo woodpecker specialises in bamboos. Woodpeckers also excavate nest holes in residential and commercial structures and wooden utility poles.
Woodpeckers and piculets excavate their own nests, but wrynecks do not, and need to find pre-existing cavities. A typical nest has a round entrance hole that just fits the bird, leading to an enlarged vertical chamber below. No nesting material is used, apart from some wood chips produced during the excavation; other wood chips are liberally scattered on the ground, thus providing visual evidence of the site of the nest. Many species of woodpeckers excavate one hole per breeding season, sometimes after multiple attempts. It takes around a month to finish the job and abandoned holes are used by other birds and mammals that are cavity nesters unable to excavate their own holes.
Cavities are in great demand for nesting by other cavity nesters, so woodpeckers face competition for the nesting sites they excavate from the moment the hole becomes usable. This may come from other species of woodpecker, or other cavity-nesting birds such as swallows and starlings. Woodpeckers may aggressively harass potential competitors, and also use other strategies to reduce the chance of being usurped from their nesting sites; for example, the red-crowned woodpecker digs its nest in the underside of a small branch, which reduces the chance that a larger species will take it over and expand it.
Members of Picidae are typically monogamous, with a few species breeding cooperatively and some polygamy reported in a few others. Polyandry, where a female raises two broods with two separate males, has also been reported in the West Indian woodpecker. Another unusual social system is that of the acorn woodpecker, which is a polygynandrous cooperative breeder where groups of up to 12 individuals breed and help to raise the young.[4] Young birds from previous years may stay behind to help raise the group's young, and studies have found reproductive success for the group goes up with group size, but individual success goes down. Birds may be forced to remain in groups due to a lack of habitat to which to disperse.
Great spotted woodpecker feeding its chick
A pair works together to help build the nest, incubate the eggs, and raise their altricial young. In most species, though, the male does most of the nest excavation and takes the night shift while incubating the eggs. A clutch usually consists of two to five round, white eggs. Since these birds are cavity nesters, their eggs do not need to be camouflaged and the white color helps the parents to see them in dim light. The eggs are incubated for about 11–14 days before they hatch. About 18–30 days are then needed before the chicks are fully fledged and ready to leave the nest. In most species, soon after this, the young are left to fend for themselves, exceptions being the various social species, and the Hispaniolan woodpecker, where adults continue to feed their young for several months. In general, cavity nesting is a successful strategy and a higher proportion of young is reared than is the case with birds that nest in the open. In Africa, several species of honeyguide are brood parasites of woodpeckers.
Systematics and evolutionary history
The Picidae are just one of nine living families in the order Piciformes. Other members of this group, such as the jacamars, puffbirds, barbets, toucans, and honeyguides, have traditionally been thought to be closely related to the woodpecker family (true woodpeckers, piculets, wrynecks, and sapsuckers). The clade Pici (woodpeckers, barbets, toucans, and honeyguides) is well supported and shares a zygodactyl foot with the Galbuli (puffbirds and jacamars). More recently, several DNA sequence analyses have confirmed that Pici and Galbuli are sister groups.
The name Picidae for the family was introduced by English zoologist William Elford Leach in a guide to the contents of the British Museum published in 1819. The phylogeny has been updated according to new knowledge about convergence patterns and evolutionary history. Most notably, the relationship of the Picinae genera has been largely clarified, and the Antillean piculet was found to be a surviving offshoot of protowoodpeckers. Genetic analysis supports the monophyly of the Picidae, which seem to have originated in the Old World, but the geographic origins of the Picinae is unclear. The Picumninae are returned as paraphyletic. Morphological and behavioural characters, in addition to DNA evidence, highlights genus Hemicircus as the sister group of all remaining true woodpeckers, besides a sister-group relationship between the true woodpecker tribes Dendropicini and Malarpicini.
The evolutionary history of this group is not well documented, but the known fossils allow some preliminary conclusions; the earliest known modern picids were piculet-like forms of the Late Oligocene, about 25 million years ago (Mya). By that time, however, the group was already present in the Americas and Europe, and they actually may have evolved much earlier, maybe as early as the Early Eocene (50 Mya). The modern subfamilies appear to be rather young by comparison; until the mid-Miocene (10–15 Mya), all picids seem to have been small or mid-sized birds similar to a mixture between a piculet and a wryneck. A feather enclosed in fossil amber from the Dominican Republic, dated to about 25 Mya, however, seems to indicate that the Nesoctitinae were already a distinct lineage by then.
Stepwise adaptations for drilling, tapping, and climbing head first on vertical surfaces have been suggested. The last common ancestor of woodpeckers (Picidae) was incapable of climbing up tree trunks or excavating nest cavities by drilling with its beak. The first adaptations for drilling (including reinforced rhamphotheca, frontal overhang, and processus dorsalis pterygoidei) evolved in the ancestral lineage of piculets and true woodpeckers. Additional adaptations for drilling and tapping (enlarged condylus lateralis of the quadrate and fused lower mandible) have evolved in the ancestral lineage of true woodpeckers (Hemicircus excepting). The inner rectrix pairs became stiffened, and the pygostyle lamina was enlarged in the ancestral lineage of true woodpeckers (Hemicircus included), which facilitated climbing head first up tree limbs. Genus Hemicircus excepting, the tail feathers were further transformed for specialized support, the pygostyle disc became greatly enlarged, and the ectropodactyl toe arrangement evolved. These latter characters may have facilitated enormous increases in body size in some lineages.
Prehistoric representatives of the extant Picidae genera are treated in the genus articles. An enigmatic form based on a coracoid, found in Pliocene deposits of New Providence in the Bahamas, has been described as Bathoceleus hyphalus and probably also is a woodpecker.
The following cladogram is based on the comprehensive molecular phylogenetic study of the woodpeckers published in 2017 together with the list of bird species maintained by Frank Gill, Pamela Rasmussen and David Donsker on behalf of the International Ornithological Committee (IOC). The Cuban green woodpecker in the monotypic genus Xiphidiopicus was not included in the study. The relative positions of Picumninae, Sasiinae and Picinae in the cladogram are uncertain. In the 2017 study the results depended upon which of two different statistical procedures were used to analyse the DNA sequence data. One method found that Sasiinae was sister to Picinae (as shown below), the other method found that Sasiinae was sister to a clade containing both Picumninae and Picinae
The woodpecker family Picidae contains 37 genera.[56] For more detail, see list of woodpecker species.
Cuban green woodpecker
(Xiphidiopicus percussus)
female, Cuba
Campo flicker
Colaptes campestris
female, Brazil
Family: Picidae
Subfamily: Jynginae – wrynecks
Jynx (2 species)
Subfamily: Picumninae – piculets[57]
Picumnus – piculets (26 species)
Subfamily: Sasiinae
Verreauxia – African piculet
Sasia – Asian piculets (2 species)
Subfamily: Picinae – true woodpeckers
Tribe Nesoctitini
Nesoctites – monotypic: Antillean piculet
Tribe Hemicircini
Hemicircus – 2 species
Tribe Picini
Micropternus – monotypic: rufous woodpecker
Meiglyptes – 4 species
Gecinulus – 3 species
Dinopium – 5 species (flamebacks)
Picus – 14 species
Chrysophlegma – 3 species
Pardipicus – 2 species
Geocolaptes – monotypic: ground woodpecker
Campethera – 11 species
Mulleripicus – 4 species
Dryocopus – 6 species
Celeus – 13 species
Piculus – 7 species
Colaptes – 14 species
Tribe Campephilini
Campephilus – 12 species
Blythipicus – 2 species
Reinwardtipicus – monotypic: orange-backed woodpecker
Chrysocolaptes – 9 species (flamebacks)
Tribe Melanerpini
Sphyrapicus – 4 species (sapsuckers)
Melanerpes – 24 species
Picoides – 3 species
Yungipicus – 7 species
Leiopicus – monotypic: yellow-crowned woodpecker
Dendrocoptes – 3 species
Chloropicus – 3 species
Dendropicos – 12 species
Dendrocopos – 12 species
Dryobates – 5 species
Leuconotopicus – 6 species
Veniliornis – 14 species
Xiphidiopicus – monotypic: Cuban green woodpecker
Incertae sedis fossils
Genus: †Palaeopicus (Late Oligocene of France)
†Picidae gen. et sp. indet. (Middle Miocene of New Mexico, US)
†Picidae gen. et sp. indet. (Late Miocene of Gargano Peninsula, Italy)
Genus: †Palaeonerpes (Ogallala Early Pliocene of Hitchcock County, US) – possibly dendropicine
Genus: †Pliopicus (Early Pliocene of Kansas, US) – possibly dendropicine
cf. Colaptes DMNH 1262 (Early Pliocene of Ainsworth, US) – malarpicine?
Relationship with humans
In general, humans consider woodpeckers in a favourable light; they are viewed as interesting birds and fascinating to watch as they drum or forage, but their activities are not universally appreciated. Many woodpecker species are known to excavate holes in buildings, fencing, and utility poles, creating health and/or safety issues for affected structures. Such activity is very difficult to discourage and can be costly to repair.
Woodpeckers also drum on various reverberatory structures on buildings such as gutters, downspouts, chimneys, vents, and aluminium sheeting. Drumming is a less-forceful type of pecking that serves to establish territory and attract mates. Houses with shingles or wooden boarding are also attractive as possible nesting or roosting sites, especially when close to large trees or woodland. Several exploratory holes may be made, especially at the junctions of vertical boards or at the corners of tongue-and-groove boarding. The birds may also drill holes in houses as they forage for insect larvae and pupae hidden behind the woodwork.
Woodpeckers sometimes cause problems when they raid fruit crops, but their foraging activities are mostly beneficial as they control forest insect pests such as the woodboring beetles that create galleries behind the bark and can kill trees. They also eat ants, which may be tending sap-sucking pests such as mealybugs, as is the case with the rufous woodpecker in coffee plantations in India. Woodpeckers can serve as indicator species, demonstrating the quality of the habitat. Their hole-making abilities make their presence in an area an important part of the ecosystem, because these cavities are used for breeding and roosting by many bird species that are unable to excavate their own holes, as well as being used by various mammals and invertebrates.
The spongy bones of the woodpecker's skull and the flexibility of its beak, both of which provide protection for the brain when drumming, have provided inspiration to engineers; a black box needs to survive intact when a plane falls from the sky, and modelling the black box with regard to a woodpecker's anatomy has increased the resistance of this device to damage 60-fold.[61] The design of protective helmets is another field being influenced by the study of woodpeckers.
One of the accounts of the founding of Rome, preserved in the work known as Origo Gentis Romanae (unknown), refers to a legend of a woodpecker bringing food to the boys Romulus and Remus during the time they were abandoned in the wild, thus enabling them to survive and play their part in history.
Popular culture
Woody Woodpecker is an animated character that appeared in theatrical short films produced between 1940 and 1972.
The Pokémon Pikipek was introduced in the seventh generation games Pokémon Sun and Moon. In addition to being a visual homage to a pileated woodpecker, entries in the game's Pokédex encyclopedia describes the small Flying-type as analogous to its real-world counterpart. Its later forms (called "evolutions" in the series) Trumbeak and Toucannon resemble a honeyguide and toucan, respectively, perhaps as a tongue-in-cheek reference to the phylogenetic relationship woodpeckers share with these Piciformes families.
Status and conservation
In a global survey of the risk of extinction faced by the various bird families, woodpeckers were the only bird family to have significantly fewer species at risk than would be expected.
Nevertheless, several woodpeckers are under threat as their habitats are destroyed. Being woodland birds, deforestation and clearance of land for agriculture and other purposes can reduce populations dramatically. Some species adapt to living in plantations and secondary growth, or to open countryside with forest remnants and scattered trees, but some do not. A few species have even flourished when they have adapted to man-made habitats. There are few conservation projects directed primarily at woodpeckers, but they benefit whenever their habitat is conserved. The red-cockaded woodpecker has been the focus of much conservation effort in the southeastern United States, with artificial cavities being constructed in the longleaf pines they favour as nesting sites.
Two species of woodpeckers in the Americas, the ivory-billed woodpecker is critically endangered and the imperial woodpecker is classified as extinct in the wild, with some authorities believing them extinct, though possible but disputed ongoing sightings of ivory-billed woodpeckers have been made in the United States and a small population may survive in Cuba. A critically endangered species is the Okinawa woodpecker from Japan, with a single declining population of a few hundred birds. It is threatened by deforestation, golf course, dam, and helipad construction, road building, and agricultural development.
Anatomy
Woodpeckers possess many sophisticated shock-absorption mechanisms that help protect them from head injury. Micro-CT scans show that plate-like spongy bones are in the skull with an uneven distribution, highly accumulated in the forehead and occiput but not in other regions. Along with the long hyoid bone “safety belt” the woodpecker has uneven beak lengths which drastically reduce strains when compared to equal length. Models have shown that pecking force is changed to strain energy and stored into the body at around 99% absorption while 1% is in the head. The head also has many factors that reduce strain to the brain and small portions of energy are dissipated into the form of heat, therefore the pecks are always intermittent.
Tau protein accumulation is associated with chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), and thus has been studied in sports where athletes suffer repeated concussions. Tau is important as it helps hold together and stabilize brain neurons. Woodpeckers' brains share similarities to humans with CTE showing most build-up in the frontal and temporal lobes of the brain. It is not yet known whether these accumulations are pathological or the result of behavioral changes. More research is being done on the subject and the woodpecker is a suitable animal model to study. The orientation of the brain within the skull increases the area of contact when pecking to reduce stress on the brain, and their small size helps, given the acceleration speeds.
Mechanical properties
Straight-line trajectory was theorized to be the reason why woodpeckers do not injure themselves, since centripetal forces were the cause of concussion, but they do not always peck in straight lines, so they produce and resist centripetal forces. Laboratory tests show that the woodpeckers' cranial bone produces a significantly higher Young's modulus and ultimate strength scores compared to other birds its size. The cranial bone has a high bone mineral density with plate-like structures that are thick with high numbers of trabeculae that are spaced closely together which all may lead to lower deformation while pecking.
The jaw apparatus was studied, looking into its cushioning effects. When comparing the same impact to the beak and to the forehead, the forehead experiences an impact force 1.72 times that of the beak, due to the contact time being 3.25 ms in the forehead and 4.9 ms in the beak. This is impulse momentum where impulse is the integral of force over time. The quadrate bone and joints play an important role in extending impact time, which decreases impact load to brain tissue.
Bio-inspired honeycomb sandwich beams are inspired by the woodpecker's skull design; this beam's goal is to withstand continuous impacts without the need of replacement. The BHSB is composed of carbon fiber-reinforced plastic (CFRP), this is to mimic the high-strength beak. Next is a rubber layer core for the hyoid bone for absorbing and spreading impact, a second core layer of aluminum honeycomb that is porous and light like the woodpecker's spongey bone for impact cushioning. The final layer is the same as the first a CFRP to act as the skull bone. Bio-inspired honeycomb sandwich beams when compared to conventional beams reduced area damage by 50–80% and carried 40 to 5% of the level of stresses in the bottom layer while having an impact-resistance efficiency 1.65 to 16.22 times higher.
The adult falcon looked in 2 sides of the large windows in different areas (top and bottom). It's almost looking for a pigeon to grab which is very unusual for them as they are ariel predators. Be interesting to know. I've never seen this before. Deliberate attempts to look where Feral Pigeons are nesting