Wonderful Woodpeckers
Photo: Debapratim Saha.
Mother Nature has designed woodpeckers with speed and strength in mind! These awesome birds can peck as fast as 20 times per second, and in all, clock between 8,000 and 12,000 pecks per day. What other design tricks did Mother Nature include when creating woodpeckers?
1. She included ‘safety goggles’ in the form of a thick nictating membrane to protect their eyes from flying woodchips.
2. She included thick, bristly feathers to cover their thin nostrils.
3. She gave them a small-sized brain, encircled with thick, spongy bone to protect it as they peck.
4. And finally, a super strong beak that absorbs most of the impact from their high-power pecking!
Photo: Ganesh Jayaraman.
Photo: Mitash Biswas.
Except for extreme polar regions, Australia, New Zealand, New Guinea and Madagascar, woodpeckers are found almost everywhere else in the world. Thirty-two out of the total 180 species of woodpeckers can be found in India.
Photo: Dhanu Paran.
Photo: Anuroop Krishnan.
Most woodpeckers have long tongues, up to 10 cm. long in some species. What’s cooler is that it wraps around their skull. Some even have barbed tongues to help them get to insects from trees and holes.
Photo: Debapratim Saha.
Photo: Shibu Nair.
Photo: Rachit Shah.
The tiniest woodpecker in the world is the Bar-breasted Piculet seen in South America, that grows just eight centimetres in height. The largest is the Great Slaty Woodpecker from Southeast Asia. They can grow nearly 60 cm. tall!
Photo: Riju Ray.
Photo: Rajesh Panwar.
First appeared in: Sanctuary Asia, Vol. XXXV No. 9, September 2015.