ORDER OF WOODPECKERS 



Order /-'/(/,• family Picida- 



S implied b>- the vernacular name of the j^roup the Woodpeckers are pre- 

 eminently distinguished for their habit of pecking the bark and decayed wood 

 of trees in their search for grubs and other insects, and for excavating deep 

 cavities in the trunks and branches of trees in which to deposit their eggs. 

 While by no means peculiar to the group, these habits are nevertheless more 

 highly developed and more universal in the Woodpeckers than in any other 

 birds. 



The Woodpeckers are essentially arboreal in their habits and obtain the 

 larger part of their food from trees. Their physical conformation especially 

 adapts them to this mode of life. Their legs are rather short and stout and 

 the toes are furnished with strong sharp claws. With the exception of the genus 

 Picoides, or Three-toed Woodpeckers, all North American Woodpeckers have four toes, two 

 of which point forward and two backward. As a further aid in maintaining their hold on 

 the trunks of trees their tails are composed of stiff feathers terminating in sharp spines which 

 can be pressed against the bark and so serve as a prop to hold the bird in an upright position 

 while it is at work. Thus Woodjicckers arc enabled to cling easily to the trunks and branches 

 and to strike hard and effective blows with their beaks upon the bark or wood. 



Since much of the food of this family is obtained from solid wood, a wise Creator has 

 provided most of them with a stout beak having a chisel-shaped point which forms an 

 exceedingly effective wood-cutting instrument. The most interesting and peculiar point 

 in the anatomy of these birds, however, is the tongue. This is cylindrical in form and very 

 long. At the front end it generally terminates in a hard point with barbs upon the sides. 

 On the inside end the typical Woodpecker tongue is extended in two long slender filaments 

 of the hyoid bone which curls up around the back of the skull ; in most species these exten- 

 sions stop between the eyes, but in other members of the family they pass around the eye 

 and in some others enter the right nasal opening and extend to the end of the beak. In 

 this last case the tongue is practically twice the length of the head. The rear end of the 

 tongue is enclosed in a muscular sheath by means of which it can be pushed out from the 

 mouth to a considerable length and used as a most effective instrument for dislodging grubs 

 or ants from their burrows in wood or bark. 



While most birds must of necessity content themselves with such insects as they can 

 find on the surface or in open crevices or flying in the air, the Woodpeckers are enabled by 

 their physical construction to devote their energy to those larvse or grubs which are beneath 

 the bark. They locate their hidden prey with great accuracy and often cut small holes 

 directl}' to the burrows of the grubs. 



Woodpeckers are found in all wooded portions of the world except on the island of 

 Madagascar and in the entire Australian region. The group is nearly equally represented 

 in the two hemispheres, the western claiming about 22 families and 225 species and sub- 

 species, the eastern 27 families and a little more than 200 species and subspecies. In the 

 United States, exclusive of outlying possessions, there are now 45 species and subspecies of 

 this family, most of which are of decided economic importance. As a family they are much 

 less migrator>' than most other birds, and the majority of the species occupy the same 

 range throughout the year, and this adds materially to their value to farmers. Their food 

 consists so largely of wood-boring grubs, hibernating insects, and insects' eggs and pupae 

 that their supplies do not fail even in the coldest weather. 



With the possible exception of the Crow no birds have been subject to so much criti- 

 cism as the Woodpeckers. When they are seen scrambling over fruit trees and their holes 

 are found in the bark it is concluded that they must be doing harm. The Woodi^eckers, 



[137I 



