Friends, I believe that everyone has heard the sound of "tuk ~ tuk ~ tuk" sound, right? This is the figure of the woodpecker pecking at the trees, and it is also the deepest impression it has left on us.
woodpecker
Woodpecker is a general term for birds of the schizotyposaur family, there are about 210 species in the world and 27 species in China. Different woodpeckers vary greatly in size, ranging from more than ten centimeters to forty centimeters, with a straight and pointed beak that can be used to cut the bark, and the tongue is like a rubber band, which can shoot out of the beak up to 10 centimeters, and such a long tongue can hook the worm out of the hole. For this reason, woodpeckers are called "tree doctors" or "forest doctors", which is a recognition and compliment of people's tree-pecking behavior. So why do woodpeckers keep pecking at trees? You're sure to say: Catch bugs. In fact, in addition to catching insects, woodpeckers keep pecking at trees, and have other purposes.
Oak woodpeckers in the Americas are very fond of eating acorns, and every autumn they peck out dense holes in the trunk, putting only one acorn in each small hole, and it is said that a tree can store tens of thousands of acorns in preparation for winter, breeding and nesting. To store more acorns, they may even peck holes in wooden poles, wooden fences and wooden houses.
In addition to the bugs hidden in the cracks of the tree, the sap of the tree itself is also the delicacy of some woodpeckers, such as the North American sap-sucking woodpecker, who likes to suck the sap of the tree, especially the sap of the tree with more sugar, such as: love birch sap, maple sap and fir sap. To better feed on sap, sap-sucking woodpeckers use their hard, sharp beaks to drill neatly arranged holes around the trunk to facilitate the sap to flow out, and then "lick" with their tongues. Especially in the summer, they dig deeper holes in the trees to get more sap from the phloem.
Juice-sucking woodpeckers
In the spring, male woodpeckers will rhythmically tap on the trunk of the tree, making a crisp "tuk tuk" sound, through which the pecking sound attracts mates and declares their territory. This courtship-style woodpeckering sound is often made in the morning. In order to make a noise and attract females, they will even peck at metal poles, wooden facades of houses, or peck at a dead branch to knock on a wooden house.
In addition, during the breeding season, woodpeckers spend up to a month pecking out a hole or holes in the trunk, and when they peck a hole that they are satisfied with, they will lay eggs, hatch and feed the chicks inside. However, hollowed-out trees can easily die and can even be blown by strong winds.
Therefore, everything should be viewed in two. For trees, the tree-pecking behavior of woodpeckers is not always saving the trees. It has been reported that forest managers in Siberia, Russia, drove woodpeckers to protect their trees precisely because of the woodpeckers' chiseled tree hole nest breeding, which caused a considerable number of tree deaths.
Holes punched by woodpeckers
About the tree pecking behavior of woodpeckers, it is introduced here, small partners have points of interest, welcome to leave a message to pay attention to, we will see you in the next issue.