Woodpecker

Woodpecker, common name for any of a family of more than 200 species of birds known for their ability to cling to the trunks of trees and dig holes in the wood with their beaks. Woodpeckers have a sharp, straight, chisel-shaped bill and a long, extensile tongue with a hard, spear-shaped tip. The toes are usually in pairs, two before and two behind, and have sharp, strong claws. In a few species, one of the two rear toes has been lost. Except in the piculets and the wrynecks, the tail is stiffened, with the shafts of the feathers terminating in hard spines, which the birds press against a vertical surface to help support their weight.

Woodpeckers are found throughout most of the world except Australia, are usually solitary in habit, and nest anywhere where there are trees, from rain forests to city parks. The birds subsist mainly on insects, which they detect by tapping the wood of trees with their bills. They excavate the insects by pickaxlike strokes of the bill. Woodpeckers generally nest in holes cut into the trunks of trees or even into giant cacti, the female depositing several shiny, white eggs in a soft bed of rotted chips at the bottom of the cavity.

The largest species, the imperial woodpecker of the Sierra Madre Occidental of Mexico, is probably extinct. It was about 53 cm (about 21 in) long, with a long neck and long crest. Closely similar and only slightly smaller, the ivory-billed woodpecker is known to survive only in a limited area of eastern Cuba. Still common in the United States and Canada is the crow-sized pileated woodpecker, which is up to 49 cm (19.5 in) long. It is black, with a red crest, a white line down the long neck, and a white flash in the wings. The most familiar woodpeckers in much of North America and Eurasia are rather small, black-and-white species. The downy woodpecker is common not only in woodlands but also in orchards and in shade trees of residential areas of cities. The larger hairy woodpecker is almost identical in color, but is less often seen outside forests. The acorn woodpecker, found from Oregon to Colombia, is remarkable for its habit of drilling a series of holes in tree trunks in which to store acorns for future use.

Scientific classification: Woodpeckers make up the family Picidae of the order Piciformes. The imperial woodpecker is classified as Campephilus imperialis, the ivory-billed woodpecker as Campephilus principalis, and the pileated woodpecker as Dryocopus pileatus. The familiar black-and-white species of Eurasia belongs to the genus Dendrocopos, those of North America to the genus Picoides. The downy woodpecker is classified as Picoides pubescens, the hairy woodpecker as Picoides villosus, and the acorn woodpecker as Melanerpes formicivorus.

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