Pileated Woodpecker at Nisqually Refuge. Photo by Jeff Larsen
Sometimes I wish all memory of this old, unremarkable cartoon would vanish, but it persists. Ever since grade school, when people meet me, they often pause for a moment as if they were the first creative genius to come up with it, chuckle and say “You mean like Woody Woodpecker?” It’s even worse when they find out that I am a birding and natural history tour guide.
Oh well, no hiding from this association with a bad cartoon. It turns out that woodpeckers and I do have several things in common: We like mature forests, we play the drums (I did in my younger days), and we have hard heads (just ask my sisters or wife). Let’s take a brief look at why these three associations are important to woodpeckers.
1. Mature Forests: Woodpeckers like the Pileated Woodpecker pictured above are especially fond of mature forests. According to the Bird Biology Handbook of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, one Pileated Woodpecker requires at least 250 acres of forest. These crow-sized birds depend upon large trees with rotting wood and standing snags to find their food, which consists primarily of carpenter ants and wood-boring beetles buried in the rotting bark. They reside in tree cavities, often in dead trees, so they need the older forest not only for food, but also for shelter.
2. Drumming: Woodpeckers play the drums, so to speak, because they cannot sing. Drumming is how woodpeckers communicate with potential mates and defend their territory. Often the drumming happens on trees, but sometimes, especially with Northern Flickers, it happens on your stovepipe or chimney during the spring. They like the resonant sound, which may be off-putting to you when it occurs at 5 AM.
3. Hard Heads: Why the hard heads? It should be obvious. Woodpeckers need them to withstand the frequent pounding on wood to excavate holes for food and shelter, and to drum. Actually, their skulls are not only hard and thick, but they also have spongy material and fluid to protect the brain. Woodpecker skulls have been studied and emulated to design various helmets to protect human heads. This is an example of the utility of diversity, and yet another reason why natural diversity is important to the welfare of humans.
So it turns out that woodpeckers and I have far more in common in real life than I do with the obnoxious character in the cartoon. In the end, I embrace being called Woody Woodpecker.
