The Best Candidate To The Post Store Keeper In The World Of Birds

There are animals that see their future and use their present for getting ready for the uncertain future. Ants, bees, and some birds are such common animals that we know. As we all know, the woodpeckers make their residence in the stems of the trees and these woodpeckers also do. Have you ever heard of a bird that collects more than 50,000 acorns in a tree made from dry tree bark to be used in winter? The part used to store that much acorns is called a granary. There exists a woodpecker who does so. It is named “the acorn woodpecker” because of the above scenario that it is related to. There we find around 7.5 million of acorn woodpeckers all over the world.

This medium sized bird is 19-23cm long and it weighs 65-90g. There is a red cap at the bottom of its head while the face area is a combination of black and white colors. The red color cap on the head of the females is lighter than the males. Feathers are black and the bottom part where the stomach is located is a collection of black and white colors. White is the color of their eyes.

These woodpeckers are easily found in oak covered mountains as they prefer such environments. Beyond that, they choose pine trees, sycamores, redwoods, and palm trees too for making their attractive granaries. The sight is so wonderful to see when thousands of acorns soak into the holes of the same size of the acorns.  They prefer tall trees. California, South West regions of the United States, South America, Central America and Columbia are the regions where these birds are abundant. Sometimes they make holes in several trees until they find the perfect place for them. The extra holes they make are being removed from their use. The process of building their residents takes up to one week depending on the structure of the tree. But sometimes it doesn’t take up to seven days if the bark of the tree is not that hard.

This woodpecker is omnivorous. It eats acorns and insects. Not only that, but also they go for fruits, nuts, seeds, and sap too. But their hunger in winter is satisfied by the acorns. Acorns become their main food of storage because the other diets they take cannot be stored without spoiling until winter. The acorns collected in the holes are arranged so tightly that the other animals cannot pull them out of the hole. The collected and stored acorns are visible. The acorn woodpecker uses an area where the dead tree cells are available to build their nests because it can reduce the spoiling of the food they collected and kept. Apart from that, they always work responsibly not to make large holes. If they do so, the other animals like birds and the squirrels can enter into their holes and they may steal their stored acorns. Then, they do not make narrow holes too. It can break the seed and spoil. They always keep the quality of the hole they make. This intelligent woodpecker does another wise thing for not having fungus on the acorns. It makes a separate store to dry up the acorns. Can you imagine to what extent this bird will see the future? That is unbelievable.

These precautions are not enough for them to maintain their acorn storage. They have to work hard to protect the stored acorns from the other thieves too. The squirrels and the other birds. But the acorn woodpecker gets so angry if another party tries to enter their store. The acorn woodpecker lives in groups consisting of an average of twelve birds while protecting their houses and looking after their chicks are also done with the support of the other families. That co-work is to be appreciated highly in the world of birds.

Now you have a good image about the acorn woodpecker. But after getting to know about the following facts regarding this bird, your good image of this bird will fade away totally or to a certain extent. They lay about 3-6 white eggs at a time. The period of incubation is only 11 days. As we know that they work cooperatively, their young ones are also being looked after by the other families too. But the female birds destroy the eggs if there are any in the nests. That happens because they lay eggs in a nest shared by the other birds. They behave arrogantly until they lay eggs. Sometimes the female who laid the new eggs also eats them by herself. The chicks become independent after their age is 2 months and they need no more adult birds to look after them after that age.

The acorn woodpecker doesn’t migrate and it does so only if it runs out of food within its lifetime of 16-17 years. Sometimes these birds face the problem of losing their habitats. Not only that, but also these woodpeckers are killed too. Reason is harming the crops like fruits. The communication among these birds takes place vocally by using their own sound patterns.

This bird helps us by removing the insect pesticides of the trees as it eats them. The cooperation, sharing of the food with the other members, storing and keeping food for the winter, working for all the members and considering others, helping each other and so on are the plus points that this bird teaches us. They do not need to migrate during winter in search of food that they have worked hard until the fall to get ready for the winter. This woodpecker has so much work throughout the day and it doesn’t have time to be lazy. Even though the taste and the nutritional values are very high in insects, the bitter acorns become their main food during winter. The qualities and the intelligence this acorn woodpecker has is really incredible compared with most of the other birds.