Trust looks for feedback into garden birds
THERE are not many garden birds which inspire as much enthusiasm as the great-spotted woodpecker.
Readers regularly eulogise about the bird and say how lucky they feel to have such a beauty at their feeder, and it is hardly surprising when you look at the picture here.
A flash of crimson, black and white is the first many people see as the bird skims across their garden, and there is many a lonely vigil takes place as a return visit is eagerly anticipated.
And return they will, when a good supply of food is located. Years ago when I lived in Leicestershire, great-- spotted woodpeckers used to visit the gnarled old oaks in our garden which backed onto fields, which in turn led to the River Soar.
In those days the mornings were silent, so silent you could hear a ‘whoosh’ as the bird came into feed at my make-shift woodpecker-diner.
The diner comprised assorted nuts and berries lodged in suet fat which I had forced into the gaps in the craggy oak bark.
The tits were usually there first, but they soon scattered when the woodpecker arrived, occasionally I would treat them by placing a small tray of maggots and other insects beneath the suet and nuts.
‘Frenzy’ might best describe the ensuing feasting when these wrigglers were on the menu.
The British Trust for Ornithology and RSPB have for many years been surveying the juveniles visiting gardens with their parents to feed, and by recording the different birds present they hope to gain an understanding of how the use of gardens for feeding changes over time.
They are looking at, ‘How important gardens are as a feeding place?
Do birds travel far to use gardens or are they a ‘last resort’?
For those that do come to feed, which foods are preferred?
The great-spotted is about the size of a blackbird and it has a very distinctive bouncing flight, spending most of its time clinging to tree trunks and branches, often trying to hide on the side away from the observer.
Its presence is often announced by its loud call or by its distinctive spring ‘drumming’ display.
If you have a large garden with mature trees and suitable nesting holes, then you may have a resident great-spotted, however, it is more likely that they will visit your garden from a nearby wood or park.
Hitting a solid tree with your beak so hard that splinters fly ought to cause the brain to rotate in the way that causes concussion in man.
Not a bit of it. The evolution of the bird’s drilling equipment has provided very sophisticated shockabsorbing adaptations involving the way that the bird’s beak joins the skull.
The stresses are transmitted directly towards the centre of the brain and do not cause the knock-out swirl.
When woodpeckers hammer into wood to get at grubs they also have another anatomical adaptation designed to help them feed.
The roots of their tongues are coiled round the back of their skulls and can be extended a prodigious distance to harpoon insect larvae in their tunnels.
The great-spotted woodpecker’s tongue protrudes 40mm beyond the tip of the bill.