WESTERN BIRDS Woodpeckers 



ORDER PICI: WOODPECKERS, ETC. 

 FAMILY— PICIDiE. 



While numerous varieties of small birds guard leaf, 

 twig, branch, and bark of our trees, it is left to the 

 Woodpeckers to do a service which neither man, nor 

 other birds, can do. 



Forty-five species and subspecies of this family are 

 found in the United States, most of which are decidedly 

 important economically, since the food consists of wood- 

 boring grubs, hibernating insects, insects' eggs and 

 pupae. The fact that these birds are less migratory than 

 most species, and stay in their range winter and summer, 

 increases their usefulness. 



They are essentially tree-dwellers and so Nature has 

 supplied them with the necessary tools and appliances 

 for their surgical operations upon the trees. 



Their legs are short and stout and, with the exception 

 of a few members of the family, are all supplied with 

 four toes, two of which point forward, and two back- 

 ward. These toes are furnished with strong, sharp 

 claws. The tail feathers have the center quills extended, 

 forming sharp points which are used as supports, enabling 

 them to hold themselves in an upright position on the 

 tree-trunk. Their manner of proceeding up a tree is by 

 short hops, sometimes circling the trunk, and is different 

 from that of any other species. The Nuthatches, their 

 nearest confreres, being able to, come down head first, 

 which the Woodpeckers never do, or walk under a limb; 

 and the Creepers walk, or run, rather than hop, upward. 

 These last named birds are also much smaller. 



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