Show ausy j sy woodpecker vs 41 A woodpeckers tongue Is a concealed spear prepared by national geographic society washington 0 11 0 service have recently discovered scientists S in the dark rain drenched forests of haiti a cles of woodpecker which builds its own apartment house they re ported seeing a dozen pairs of wood peckers going in and out of nests in a single dead tree trunk there are few birds that so satis facto fac tonly rily reveal their family connection as do the woodpecker the be ginner in bird study may learn that the meadowlark belongs to the family leter idae but he may be excused if he does not learn at once that the bobolink the oriole and the red winged blace bird all strikingly differ ent in habits and color belong to the same family he may study the wood thrush and be surprised to f find ind later that the robin and the bluebird bear to it a close family relationship but if he becomes thoroughly familiar with the appearance and activities of just one woodpecker he will thereafter be able to recognize at once any other member of the family which he may encounter woodpeckers are of wide dis tribu tion they inhabit all the countries of the globe except madagascar and the australian region more afore than four hundred species are known and many geographical races of these have been described in north america the family Is rep resented by ten genera classified into 22 species several of which in turn are divided into subspecies or geo graphical races in all 64 kinds of woodpeckers are recognized in conti cental united states canada and baja california sensible and busy birds woodpeckers give the impression of being practical sensible birds under ordinary circumstances they do not show a hysterical fear of man they are wary but do not let that inter fere with their work they are very busy birds and most of the time are absorbed in climbing about tree trunks and limbs they get along to gether fairly well one sees few serious combats among them they do not possess the stately dig anity of the heron the singing powers of the thrush or the graceful flight of the swallow woodpeckers do not stir the imagination to thoughts of distant lands as does the wild goose when far overland we see him leading his flock toward the frozen pole the woodpeckers are known rather as hard working substantial citizens of the bird world rendering service which could ill be spared these birds possess highly special iced equipment for their business of getting a living they are the only birds in our country that can dig holes in solid trees As a group they pass most of their days pecking decayed trees or stumps for ants or the larvae of wood boring beetles no other bird leaves behind such striking evidence of its presence A hundred thousand warblers may ml grate through a small region and many may remain for the summer and rear their young when they have gone little sign of their former presence Is left behind but a half dozen wood peckers in the same community will leave very definite evidence of their occupancy numerous holes in dead trees with here and there an en trance to a nesting cavity will all bear convincing testimony that these birds have been in the forests and the orchards of the neighborhood woodpeckers nest in hollows which they d g in trees and all of them lay white eggs on a bed of fine chips at the bottom of the cavities their toes usually number four two of them pointing forward and the oth ers backward this arrangement en ables the birds to grasp firmly the side of a tree and especially Is this the case when they brace themselves with their twelve long stiff tall feathers one kind goes after sap the sapsucker a species of wood pecker Is looked upon with serious disfavor by foresters and some variety of it being found in near ly every part of the country this dia like arises from its universal custom of peeking pecking holes in live trees the bird does this chiefly to get the sap which flows upward through the soft camb urn um lying just beneath the bast or inner bark and it also eats the cambium and bast to get this food the sapsucker drills holes in rings around the tree or at times in rows on the trunk or along a limb As the sap collects in the openings it Is consumed by the bird until the little springs begin to fail fall when an other series of holes Is made near the first one thus the work continues until lar large lare e areas of the tree may be covered with these per pert forat ons the sapsucker will take the sap of maple mountain ash pear plum appie apple cherry oak peach spruce and ironwood trees and of almost all spa sp cles of pines firs hemlocks cedars cypress or cottonwoods in the northern forests where many sapsuckers spend the summer numer ous birch trees are killed annually by them in the northwest where at times sapsuckers em are usually ful whole apple orchards have been destroyed in some trees such as maples wal nuts and hickories their holes often pierce the sap wood beneath the cam blum in the subsequent growth of the trees these wounds sometimes cause curly or birds bird s eye wood well known to lumbermen more afore often however this exposure of the wood al lows insects fungi or bacteria to en ter these cause blemishes or decayed areas which reduce in value the lum ber which later may be cut from the tree about the rings of holes made by these birds in locusts and sycamores shoots often sprout from adventitious buds and thus the symmetry of the tree is marred not only are hun deeds of thousands of trees injured by sapsuckers but a considerable pro portion of those that are attacked die either the same year or subsequently the woodpeckers do not confine their attentions wholly to trees they make their explorations for sap through the bark of various large vines such tor for example as the vir ginia creeper poison ivy rattan and trumpet creeper close about the nesting tree of the sapsucker sap there are various trees where the old birds go for their sap and where they take their young when they leave the nest here the family spends the summer with an abundance of normal food supply at hand at this season they eat also ants flies files beetles and various other insects which are drawn to the flowing springs of sweet sap other woodpeckers come to these little fountains as well as humming birds warblers and at times red squirrels flicker Is the best known among the woodpeckers the flicker is a bird of distinctive personality and it attracts universal attention undoubtedly it is known to far more people than are the other woodpeck ers its local names are numerous bird I 1 golden winged woodpecker high holder p pigeon ion e woodpecker and yellow ham mer I 1 are some of them of late years the custom has devel aped of adopting a state bird I 1 al ready choice has been made by the or of 43 states and in ala bama not long ago the question of which bird should be chosen created hot discussion in the end the yel low hammer was decided upon the fight for its name was led by a worn wom en s patriotic organization members of which called attention to the historic fact that a company of alabama youths had placed the bird birds s feathers in their caps and designating them selves yellow hammers had marched away singing to the civil war the red headed woodpeckers and others of the family will now and then dart down to a road or to the lawn to capture an insect or to pick up an acorn but when the flicker drops to the ground he remains there for some time often until frightened away in the woods the field or the garden one may come upon him hopping awkward ly through the grass his chief interest at such times Is ants wt h constitute 50 per cent of his food he lie secures them by use of his remarkable tongue which can be thrust outward two and a half inches or more beyond the end of the bill his tongue is at all times covered with a sticky saliva which catches and holds the ants as they rush forward to attack what appears to be a long worm that has crawled across their path or entered their burrow this thip tongue Is a very wonderful or gan in the mouth it branches and the two horns pass up the rear of the skull on top they meet and close to gether th the two parts run forward and downward over the right eye to the nostril which they enter and extend onward to the end of the bill how they feed their young like other woodpeckers these birds feed their young by regurgitation when the little ones are old enough to come to the mouth of the nesting hole to be fed this operation may oft en be observed the parent puts its bill into the mouth of a nestling and repeatedly stabs downward in a most alarming manner some flickers have the curious habit of continuing to lay an egg dally daily if before the clutch Is completed all the eggs except one are taken being careful always to leave one nest egg joseph Arn armfield ifield of greensboro N C was the cause of one of these birds laying 32 eggs in 35 days ordinarily a flicker lays four or five eggs |