Your dead palm is a woodpecker home—and that's good

SEPTEMBER 23, 2019

by Angela Nicoletti, Florida International University

At the very edges of urbanization, Northern Flicker woodpeckers live in dead palm trees raising their young. Their populations are on the decline throughout the state, especially South Florida. But Joshua Diamond was lucky enough to capture a few on film, along with other species of woodpeckers.

Diamond, an FIU instructor who recently graduated with his Ph.D. in environmental science, conducted the first research on woodpecker nesting habits in South Florida. After inspecting more than 1,860 nest cavities in 967 trees, Diamond discovered that while woodpeckers nested in pines and oaks, their favorite South Florida trees are palms. Dead ones, to be exact. In fact, more than 90 percent of woodpecker holes were made in dead royal palm trees.

"People like having life in their yards or neighborhoods. They see a dead tree and want to get rid of it," Diamond said. "But they might not know how much more life it's going to bring."

Urbanization presents challenges for many species. Woodpeckers, though, have learned to live in Miami. As Diamond points out, this is a really good thing. They are a major indicator of how well we are doing at managing our cities as healthy and balanced ecosystems.

Woodpeckers are an important ecological keystone species, because when they vacate a nest, it does not go to waste. Other animals, including eastern screen owls and exotic species like parrots, take up residence. "If we lose woodpeckers, we lose a lot more," Diamond said.

The idea for Diamond's research came from his bicycle rides around South Florida. He often passed by palm trees peppered with woodpecker holes. Growing up in Washington, D.C., he was accustomed to seeing these birds make nests in oaks and other hardwood trees. It made him wonder: Why were they choosing palms?

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Study: Some woodpeckers imitate a neighbor's plumage

APRIL 8, 2019

by Cornell University

In the first global test of the idea, scientists have found evidence that some woodpeckers can evolve to look like another species of woodpecker in the same neighborhood. The researchers say that this "plumage mimicry" isn't a fluke—it happens among pairs of distantly related woodpeckers all over the world. The study, published in the journal Nature Communications, was conducted by researchers at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, SUNY Buffalo State, the University of British Columbia, and Manchester University.

"Habitat, climate, and genetics play a huge role in the way feather color and pattern develop," explains lead author Eliot Miller at the Cornell Lab. "Species in similar environments can look similar to one another. But in some cases, there's another factor influencing the remarkable resemblance between two woodpecker species and that's mimicry. It's the same phenomenon found in some butterflies which have evolved markings that make them look like a different bad-tasting or toxic species in order to ward off predators."

Study authors combined data on feather color, DNA sequences, eBird reports, and NASA satellite measures of vegetation for all 230 of the world's woodpecker species. It became clear, Miller says, that there have been repeated cases of distantly-related woodpeckers coming to closely resemble each other when they live in the same region of the globe.

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Study reveals shock-absorbing ability of woodpecker beaks

(Phys.org) —A team of researchers at Mississippi State University has found that the beaks of woodpeckers are constructed in such a way as to help dissipate energy. In their paper published in Journal of the Royal Society Interface, the team describes their work in analyzing the beaks of several red-bellied woodpeckers and how they found that it has three layers that all help to absorb shocks as the bird pecks away at trees looking for insects inside.

Most everyone knows that woodpeckers bang away at trees (or sometimes other structures) with their beaks to create holes that allow them access to insects hidden inside. Prior research has shown that woodpeckers have a variety of features throughout their heads that help absorb shock, preventing the birds from suffering brain or other damage as they hunt for their prey. In this new effort, the researchers sought to learn if there was anything special about their beaks that might also help soften the internal blow as the birds hammer away at a tree, between one and three hundred times a minute.

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Thomasville woman spots rare woodpecker

May 1, 2014 

Written by

Merry Ann Frisby

A rare white pileated woodpecker is visiting homeowner Mary Wise in Thomasville, Georgia. On April 22, it finally posed for a portrait.

The leucistic pileated woodpecker has been mistaken for the ivory billed woodpecker, which is likely extinct.

“I was surprised and excited to see this beautiful bird return,” said Levings.

Researchers from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology say that the phenomenom — also known as “partial albinism” — is infrequent but not unknown in wild bird populations. It results from a reduction or absence of melanin, a dark pigment, in the feathers.

“It is not unusual for such birds to retain other feather pigments, such as reddish carotenoids, resulting in unusually patterned plumage such as in the recently found Pileated Woodpecker,” said the university team. “From 2000-2006, Project Feeder-Watch participants reported fewer than 1,000 leucistic birds. There were 5.5 million birds reported each season.”

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