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What we have mentioned so far are only a few
of the general characteristics of wood-
peckers. Apart from those mentioned,
every woodpecker species has many
characteristics peculiar to itself. Now let's
consider a kind of woodpecker that hides acorns
in trees.
Throughout summer, the acorn woodpecker bores
“holes” in a dead tree trunk because at the end of the
summer it will fill these holes with acorns, on which it
will feed during winter. Acting like a hammer, it drives one
acorn in each hole. This takes a great deal of the wood-
pecker's time because it tries to find the acorn that fits exactly
into the hole it has bored. If the hole is big and the acorn is small, then the
loose acorn will easily be taken by other birds. If the hole is smaller than the
acorn, then the acorn will be damaged while it is being forced into the hole.
Therefore, it takes some time for the woodpecker to place acorns by trial
and error.
Yet there is even more that a woodpecker needs to do. As acorns dry over
time they become smaller. This means that the woodpecker has to replace
dry acorns with fresh ones.
It should also be noted that the woodpecker does not merely store 5 to 10
acorns; an acorn woodpecker can stock approximately 50,000 acorns in a
big tree.
W O N D E R F U L C R E A T U R E S
