What Makes a Woodpecker Peck Wood?
Or: How Much Wood Can a Woodpecker Peck? One of the most interesting sights you probably recall from childhood experience was a woodpecker hammering furiously against a tree. Anyone who has spent much time in the woods in almost any part of the United States has heard the familiar rat-a-tat-tat of a woodpecker banging his sharp, stout beak against wood. Woodpeckers have some of the most remarkable habits of all living things. They’re another amazing example of highly specialized creatures who obtain their food in a very unusual manner. One ornithologist told of seeing a woodpecker land on his favorite oak tree. Seeing the blurred head as the bird furiously hacked clouds of splinters and sawdust out of his favorite tree, the man shouted at the bird, then decided to girdle the part of the tree the wood pecker had attacked with a heavy wire mesh, in an attempt to discourage it. But the woodpecker was soon back. This time, the man found the wire mesh in shreds, and the bird busily drilling
