Woodpeckers also
excavate holes especially for their own nests, and they take more care with their nesting holes than with their foraging holes. They usually
nest in dead trees, and manage to chip holes out quietly to avoid being noticed by potential predators. In certain areas, woodpeckers
have developed very elaborate nesting procedures to deal with particular characteristics of a forest.
Carpenter ants and other insects that woodpeckers feed on live within tunnels in dead standing trees. Photo by Maya Walters. |
Small fires occur frequently in southern coniferous forests, and woodpeckers there nest in living trees, which don't burn as easily as dead trees, and therefore offer more protection. However, these living trees exude a thick, strong-smelling sap through any wounds in the outer layers of their trunks. This prevents the birds from making satisfactory nests. These woodpeckers are forced to move lower down to a thicker area of the trunk, where there is sufficient nesting space below the outer sap-producing layer of wood. Nesting lower down means they are more vulnerable to predators such as snakes, which can actually climb the tree trunks to steal chicks from the nests. The woodpeckers protect their young from these threats by drilling small holes all around the nest entrance, which then exude sap onto the trunk. This sap prevents anything from climbing up to the nest. These specialized foraging and nesting techniques have been developing over thousands of years. |
woodpeckers -- page 4 of 4
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[coniferous forests] [reptiles]
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