What kind of food do woodpeckers eat?

Woodpecker is a general term for birds of the family Pectoridae. There are about 221 species with a wide range of distribution and excellent insect trapping skills. Because of their great contribution to the protection of trees, people call them "forest guards" or "tree doctors". They have been loved and praised by people since ancient times, so let's take a look at what kind of food woodpeckers eat.

What kind of food do woodpeckers eat?

The woodpecker has an extremely superb ability to catch insects, with a strong and pointed beak, which can peck not only the bark, but also the hard wood parts, much like a carpenter's chisel, the tongue is slender and soft, and can protrude long from the outside of the mouth. there are a pair of long hyoid bones that surround the outside of the skull and play a special spring role. the torsion of the hyoid angle can make the tongue stretch freely, the tip of the tongue is keratinized, and there are rows of barbs and mucus. It is very suitable for catching insects and larvae on tree trunks. The pests pecked by woodpeckers include Coleoptera weevil, pseudo-walking beetle, longicorn beetle larva, golden beetle, Lepidoptera, borer moth, and flower bugs, stink bugs, locusts, ants, grubs, small cysticercus, longicorn beetle larvae, grubs, termites and so on.

How do woodpeckers hunt?

The woodpecker hits the trunk with its beak. If it finds worms somewhere in the trunk, it climbs tightly to the tree, with its head and mouth almost perpendicular to the trunk. It first pecks through the bark, hooks the pests out with their tongues, and sticks out the eggs with mucus. When the insects are hiding in the deep passage of the tree trunk, they will also skillfully use the clever trick of "drumming and repelling insects". They will beat the drums at the passage with their mouths, emitting special drumming sounds that frighten the pests, so that under the stimulation of sound waves, the pests will turn their heads and move around, often trying to escape from the hole and being caught and eaten by woodpeckers waiting here. Woodpeckers usually have to wipe out the small cysticercosis of the whole tree before transferring to another tree. when they encounter a tree with serious pests, they will work on this tree for several days until all the pests are removed.

Does woodpecker have a concussion?

The woodpecker strikes trees about 500 to 600 times a day very fast, almost twice the speed of sound, so its head inevitably suffers a very severe shock, but it does not get a concussion or a headache. It turns out that there are at least three layers of shock-proof devices on the head of the woodpecker, the skull structure is loose and full of air, and there is a tough outer meninges inside the skull, and there is a narrow gap between the outer meninges and the brain pulp, which contains liquid, which reduces the fluid transmission of shock waves and plays the role of shock absorption. Sudden rotating movement is more likely to cause brain damage than straight-line horizontal movement, so there are well-developed and strong muscles on both sides of its head, which can play the role of shock prevention and shock absorption.