On September 14, technicians from the Xiaoheishan Provincial Nature Reserve in Longling, Baoshan City, were sorting out photos of wild animals when they found a bird with a fluffy "little yellow crown" on its head and particularly eye-catching body feathers. Identified by Zeng Wei, a technician of the Kunming Survey and Design Institute of the State Forestry and Grassland Administration, it was identified as a yellow-crowned woodpecker of the genus Green Woodpecker in the woodpecker family.
It is reported that the yellow-crowned woodpecker is a national level II key protected wild animal, which belongs to the near-threatened species in China, and has been listed in the "Red List of Vertebrates of China" (Jiang Zhigang et al., 2016) near-threatened (NT) species. This is the 10th new record of wild birds in Longling County since 2021.
Near-threatened species Yellow-crowned woodpecker Courtesy of this image
According to Zeng Wei, the yellow-crowned woodpecker has olive-green dorsal feathers, a black-and-white horizontal spot on its tail, and a black-and-white transverse spot under its wings that is particularly obvious when flying, and the bright yellow "small yellow crown" on the top of the head is very eye-catching. It mainly inhabits evergreen broad-leaved forests and mixed forests below 2000 m above sea level, but also in bamboo forests and forest edge shrublands. Omnivorous, feeding mainly on insects, but also eating plant fruits and seeds. In China, it is mainly distributed in Yunnan, Tibet, Guangxi and other places, and in Longling County, it is mainly distributed in the Little Black Mountain Provincial Nature Reserve and surrounding areas.
The yellow-crowned woodpecker is a jungle bird that is secluded and mostly active in higher-lying forests. "This kind of annual bird (yellow-crowned woodpecker) is very alert, either looking for dead tree trunks in the woods or constantly pecking holes with its mouth, and the slightest 'wind and grass movement' it flies away... I tracked it for a long time before I was lucky enough to photograph it. According to Yang Jiqiang, a bird watcher in Longling County who photographed yellow-crowned woodpeckers.
The discovery of the yellow-crowned woodpecker has brought 300 known wild bird species in Longling County, accounting for 31.74% of the 945 species of birds in Yunnan Province (Sun Hang and Gao Zhengwen, 2016), and has also increased the number of national I. and II. key protected wild activities in the Little Black Mountain Reserve from 101 to 102 species.
"The changing trend of species is one of the important indicators of regional ecological quality." With the increasing efforts of biodiversity publicity, ecological protection, scientific research and monitoring in Longling County, the local natural ecological environment continues to improve, and the number of new record species recorded in the county has also increased. Since 2021 alone, 10 new record species of county-wide wildlife have been discovered in and around the Longling Little Black Mountain Reserve, such as coronal finches, spotted woodpeckers, spotted fish dogs, yellow-crowned woodpeckers and yellow-footed squirrels, which has also increased the number of wild vertebrate species in Longling County from 468 in 2006 to 544 now.
"The pecking wood does not peck at the new branches, but the claws withered the belly of the tree." Woodpeckers are veritable "forest doctors.". According to Zeng Wei, the woodpecker's head structure is special, the skull is very thick, and there is a spongy cavity inside, which can absorb the force generated by vibration. First, the woodpecker's brain is relatively small, surrounded by dense, soft tissue that cushions and mitigates the force generated by the impact. Secondly, before the woodpecker strikes the trunk, the eye membrane will close quickly to prevent the eyeball from being injured. Third, the woodpecker trajectory is a straight line, which can reduce the shear force generated by rotation. Fourth, the woodpecker's lower beak is longer than the upper beak, and when it hits the trunk, the muscles can contract, transferring the generated force from the lower beak to the body, so that the head is less impacted, thus avoiding "concussion". For this reason, the woodpecker is also known as a walking "shock absorption machine".
Yunnan Network reporter Li Jianguo correspondent Yu Yunjiang Yang Jiqiang