Powerful Woodpecker
By Mark
Outsides of an Awesome Bird
Rat-a-tat-tat. Bing-a-bing-bong. Rat-a-tat-tat. Bing-A Bing-Bong. RAT-A-TAT-TAT! BING-A BING-BONG!! Sorry, I was playing my new bongos with my powerful woodpecker. A powerful woodpecker has amazingly strong claws to hold on to the tree. This very beautiful bird is 33-38 cm (13-15 in.) long! It has a black head, with a hind neck (WHAT!) and a black mantle. Let’s take a short break.
HEY! Stop pecking my head! Someone: get those BONGOS! I forgot to say, powerful woodpeckers also have scapulars (bones that hold their wings), an upper back, and a tail. They have white feathers on the lower back, rump, and tips of the primaries (long feathers at the front of the wings). You might be thinking, how do I know the difference between a male and a female? I know. Males have bright red feathers on the crest (top of the head). Here’s an amazing fact, powerful woodpeckers can peck up to 20 times per second. Tune in for the Life Cycle next!
Pinky Pecker
Aww! Baby woodpeckers! Ohh hey, boys and girls, welcome to the second showcase. There’s not much to tell you, but here I go. In October, that is if you find a powerful woodpecker, they lay one egg. In May, they lay two eggs. (ONLY October and May they lay eggs. PERIOD.) They must have 16 days of incubation for the eggs. Incubation means sitting on the eggs to warm them up.
After a few days of the baby woodpeckers being hatched they turn pink (COMPLETELY). Babies nest for 34-37 days. I almost forgot, the male and female take care of the babies and eggs. The powerful woodpecker’s life span is 6-11 years old. That’s how old I am! Males and females protect the baby from the predators but that’s in section four, later on. Coming up is habitat!
Woodpecker in the House!
Ahhh! Wait am I on?! This is another session of the woodpecker. Today we are learning about where they live. HEY!
Rat-a-tat-tat.
What’s that, woodpecker? I was talking about the places that you live!
As I was saying, they live in Central Colombia to Peru (that means Ecuador, Colombia, Peru, and Venezuela). These are countries in South America. The woodpecker likes tropical moist forests in the Andes, a large mountain range. A tropical climate is hot and humid. This might not sound good to you, but I call it a sunny day.
The woodpecker inhabits, or lives, in well-developed and old forests. Did you know that it also lives in burned and still standing trees (they use it as a protection from wild cats)? The woodpeckers forage on low tree trunks or in the sub-canopy. Forage means to look for food. These are the places you’ll find a woodpecker.
Omnivores on the Food Chain
Speaking of food, the woodpeckers are omnivores. Omnivores are animals that eat plants and meat. Don’t worry, they’re not going to eat you! They eat insects, seeds, fruits, berries, and nuts. Well, what they eat depends on their habitat, which is where they live.
Did you know that foxes, wild cats, snakes, rats, and large birds are predators of the woodpecker? They don’t only eat the woodpecker, they also eat the woodpecker’s eggs too! It might sound weird that large birds eat woodpeckers, but think of a hawk. They are around two feet long and remember the woodpecker is a little more than one foot long. Picture this, a large carnivorous (something that eats meat only) hawk swooping down on a woodpecker, gobbling it up in one bite. These are what they eat and what eats them.
By Mark
Outsides of an Awesome Bird
Rat-a-tat-tat. Bing-a-bing-bong. Rat-a-tat-tat. Bing-A Bing-Bong. RAT-A-TAT-TAT! BING-A BING-BONG!! Sorry, I was playing my new bongos with my powerful woodpecker. A powerful woodpecker has amazingly strong claws to hold on to the tree. This very beautiful bird is 33-38 cm (13-15 in.) long! It has a black head, with a hind neck (WHAT!) and a black mantle. Let’s take a short break.
HEY! Stop pecking my head! Someone: get those BONGOS! I forgot to say, powerful woodpeckers also have scapulars (bones that hold their wings), an upper back, and a tail. They have white feathers on the lower back, rump, and tips of the primaries (long feathers at the front of the wings). You might be thinking, how do I know the difference between a male and a female? I know. Males have bright red feathers on the crest (top of the head). Here’s an amazing fact, powerful woodpeckers can peck up to 20 times per second. Tune in for the Life Cycle next!
Pinky Pecker
Aww! Baby woodpeckers! Ohh hey, boys and girls, welcome to the second showcase. There’s not much to tell you, but here I go. In October, that is if you find a powerful woodpecker, they lay one egg. In May, they lay two eggs. (ONLY October and May they lay eggs. PERIOD.) They must have 16 days of incubation for the eggs. Incubation means sitting on the eggs to warm them up.
After a few days of the baby woodpeckers being hatched they turn pink (COMPLETELY). Babies nest for 34-37 days. I almost forgot, the male and female take care of the babies and eggs. The powerful woodpecker’s life span is 6-11 years old. That’s how old I am! Males and females protect the baby from the predators but that’s in section four, later on. Coming up is habitat!
Woodpecker in the House!
Ahhh! Wait am I on?! This is another session of the woodpecker. Today we are learning about where they live. HEY!
Rat-a-tat-tat.
What’s that, woodpecker? I was talking about the places that you live!
As I was saying, they live in Central Colombia to Peru (that means Ecuador, Colombia, Peru, and Venezuela). These are countries in South America. The woodpecker likes tropical moist forests in the Andes, a large mountain range. A tropical climate is hot and humid. This might not sound good to you, but I call it a sunny day.
The woodpecker inhabits, or lives, in well-developed and old forests. Did you know that it also lives in burned and still standing trees (they use it as a protection from wild cats)? The woodpeckers forage on low tree trunks or in the sub-canopy. Forage means to look for food. These are the places you’ll find a woodpecker.
Omnivores on the Food Chain
Speaking of food, the woodpeckers are omnivores. Omnivores are animals that eat plants and meat. Don’t worry, they’re not going to eat you! They eat insects, seeds, fruits, berries, and nuts. Well, what they eat depends on their habitat, which is where they live.
Did you know that foxes, wild cats, snakes, rats, and large birds are predators of the woodpecker? They don’t only eat the woodpecker, they also eat the woodpecker’s eggs too! It might sound weird that large birds eat woodpeckers, but think of a hawk. They are around two feet long and remember the woodpecker is a little more than one foot long. Picture this, a large carnivorous (something that eats meat only) hawk swooping down on a woodpecker, gobbling it up in one bite. These are what they eat and what eats them.