The Acorn Woodpecker

The picidae or woodpecker family are some of my favorite birds. In New York in winter we often get Downy and Red Bellied Woodpeckers coming to the feeder. I like their red heads and the way they stand on the tree trunks. At Pt. Reyes last weekend I saw my first ever Acorn Woodpecker. The Acorn Woodpecker drills holes in a tree to store acorns, the tree is called an acorn granary. The granary can have thousands of holes in it, the woodpecker spends a large amount of time filling the holes with acorns which eventually dry out and are eaten. In addition to collecting all the acorns the woodpecker has to defend his horde from other birds and squirrels. The pair of acorn woodpeckers I saw at Point Reyes were busy around their granary and I saw them putting acorns into the tree. The granary was a large pine trees in a picnic area with oak trees nearby. Just as described in the books the granary tree had literally thousands of acorn holes in it, many were empty but some held acorns. It seems like a lot of work all the collecting and protecting of acorns, the acorn woodpecker is fairly common so I guess it's not a bad way of life for a bird. I was very glad to see my first acorn woodpeckers and thought it particularly nice to see them in an easily accessible area where many people can enjoy watching this fascinating bird.