The Happy Pecking Of A Woodpecker

I really love birds and enjoy watching them around our garden, but I do have my favourites. The wood pecker is one of them! And because we have so many trees in our

wonderful village, it means that a wood pecker is never far away. They are such memorable birds and extremely beautiful to look at with their speckled wings and red flourishes. And of course the most distinctive aspect of a woodpecker is the sound it makes as it hammers its beak into the trunks of trees- personally that to me is the sound of a forest and is extremely peaceful and reassuring. 

Woodpeckers chisel into trees to find food or excavate nest holes, and also drum for contact and territorial advertisement. They have anatomical adaptations to manage the physical stresses from the hammering action. They are found worldwide and 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 beak, producing a reverberatory sound that can be heard at some distance. Some species vary their diet with fruits, birds's eggs, small animals, tree sap and human scraps. They mostly 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.

Wood peckers have also ended up with some rather funky nicknames around

the world including: “half-shirt", "jelly coat", "shirt-tail bird","flag bird" and the "flying

checker-board".

The average life span of a wild woodpecker can be from 4-12 years, depending on the

species. In general, larger woodpeckers typically have longer lifespans, and may live up to 20-30 years in ideal conditions. Woodpeckers lay clutches of eggs each year that both the male and female will take care of and incubate and each clutch is around 3-10 eggs however only two or three are likely to make it to adulthood. Sadly in England, woodpecker numbers are declining yearly and dived by more than a quarter since the early 1970s. Reasons include: habitat loss (forests are vital and with more and more tree’s being cut down, this makes it even harder for our woodpeckers. climate change of course and falling biodiversity also play a vital role in the problems for these birds and many other bird species too. You can help support our woodpeckers by leaving mature trees on your land untouched- never fell a tree in less you have to, they support such a wealth of life, not just birds and we need our tree’s in the fight against

climate change.

Also leave dead trees and snags around the garden to help provide natural feeding, nesting, and drumming sites for them. Let’s hope that the happy pecking of a wood pecker continues for years and years to come.