In the eyes of most people, woodpecker is a kind of good bird . They work diligently to "catch insects and cure diseases" for trees and never pay them. But in fact, there are also traitors in the woodpecker family. These guys pecked the tree with holes but did not catch insects.
Woodpeckers are not all "good birds"
So, are they "quack doctors" or "rogues"?
The good bird identity of the woodpecker
Woodpecker is a common resident bird , which is distributed worldwide, with about 34 genera and 208 species of . As typical arborist climbing birds, they have typical toe-shaped feet, simply put, the second and third toes forward, and the one and four toes backward.
The toe structure is conducive to it being able to firmly "nail" itself on the tree and move it vertically, making it convenient to "treat" towards the tree.
The toe-toe-shaped foot of the woodpecker is beneficial to its climbing trees
The woodpeckers living in my country are mainly green woodpeckers and spotted woodpeckers . The feathers of green woodpeckers are mainly green, but the male bird's head is red, which shows that it also refuses to "have a little green on its head".
The spotted woodpecker is the protagonist who often appears in the story. Its body background is black and there are some white spots on it.
spotted woodpeckers often appear in people's sight
. With the continuous advancement of afforestation projects in my country, the insect disaster in forestry has also received attention. The main characteristics of forest pest and disease in my country are as follows. The first is that the area of is very large and the incidence of insect pest and disease is increasing.
data shows that in the 1950s, the area of forest pests and diseases occurred in the country every year was 1 million hectares, 1.4 million hectares in the 1960s, 3.6 million hectares in the early 1970s, and rose to 5.33 million hectares in the late 1970s. After the 1980s, the area of the year was no less than 6.67 million hectares, and in the 1990s, it reached 11 million hectares.
The second is that occurs in a wide range of , and regional disasters often occur, such as Daxinganling area . The third is that the insect plague is stubborn and sudden , which is often difficult to cure it in one go. Fourth, There are many types of borer pests and pests, and it is very difficult to prescribe the right medicine.
Forest diseases are abundant, and it is difficult to prescribe the right medicine
In this case, eliminating forestry pests was once in trouble.
It was not until 1980 that World Union for Conservation of Nature released a world protection strategy, pointing out that sustainable development of 's life resource protection made us realize that if we want to solve the problem of nature, we still have to start with nature. In this way, many regions launched ecological forest control actions, such as releasing some woodpeckers in the forest.
These woodpeckers effectively solve the problem of forestry pests. For example, woodpeckers in Gansu, my country deal with the flooded celestial that is flooded in the forest. Although the larvae of the long-bolt will drill into the bark to feed after birth, the woodpecker's "diamond" can easily conquer the bark and pull out the pests hidden in it.
Woodpecker catching insects effectively solves the problem of forestry pests
Gradually, the saying that woodpecker is "good at catching insects" and is a beneficial bird has been deeply imprinted in everyone's mind. However, not all woodpeckers are good birds and "take catching insects as their responsibility", such as the oak woodpeckers and juice-sucking woodpeckers living in the Americas in .
The "traitor"
The oak woodpecker has a moderate size, which is about the same size as the two woodpeckers mentioned above. This guy also has a red "hat", with white feathers on his waist and a black back. This color scheme, coupled with a touch of "red" on the head, makes it look a bit like a young man in spirit.
Oak woodpecker is one of the North American woodpeckers
The origin of this woodpecker is in America , and you can see it in Mexico, Nicaragua , Panama and other countries.Also, oak woodpeckers love cluster life, so sometimes you can find a lot of woodpeckers on an oak .
Of course, the larger their family, the worse the oak tree that was regarded as a residence will be. Because many times, they will peck the trees with holes, but not to "catch insects".
In addition to eating insects, oak woodpeckers also like to eat nuts . They are like " squirrel " among birds, and they have the habit of stocking up. The main food that this type of woodpeckers stocks is acorns . In autumn, they will start preparing to stock up for the winter.
Oak woodpeckers like to stock up on acorns
Regularly speaking, woodpeckers only need to put their food in their nest, but the size of the nest cannot meet them, so these guys will peck out dense holes in the tree and then stuff the collected acorns in it. This is simply a "rogue" behavior.
Judging from the oak trees where the oak woodpecker lives, these trees have long been miserable because the gaps in their bark have been forced to expand, and there are a large number of acorns inside. According to the data, in this way, the oak woodpeckers living in the cluster can store tens of thousands of acorns on it.
They pecked out countless small holes in the tree, and then put the acorns in
It is worth mentioning that this is just the first round of damage. After being stuffed into the gaps in the tree, fresh acorns will slowly shrink, and at this time the smaller acorns may fall out. Therefore, the Oak Woodpecker family will also send special security officers to maintain the "granary tree". Their responsibilities are to transfer the dropped acorns that are about to fall in in a timely manner.
The way to transfer is to peck out smaller holes where has spaces on the trunk to ensure that the shrinking acorns can still be firmly "stuck". Sometimes if there is no tree to choose from, they will also attack wooden poles or fences.
Oak woodpeckers will also find a "hospitable" for the fallen acorns
Of course, people often have different opinions on whether this practice will cause harm to the trees.
Because some oak woodpeckers will prefer malnutritional "dead trees", in this case, their behavior is not considered a harm to the health of the trees. However, if you choose a live tree with good growth status, it will definitely have a certain impact.
Most of the time they choose "dead trees"
Of course, if the oak woodpecker can be "whitened", then the juice-absorbing woodpecker , which lives in North America, is covered in black spots and cannot be "realized". Because in addition to pecking the bark and catching insects, this guy also likes to suck the juice of trees , which is similar to that of certain pests.
According to the data, likes to absorb sap with higher sugar content, such as birch sap, maple sap, etc.
It is worth mentioning that this type of woodpecker destroys the bark and then causes its juice to flow out actually attracts many insects, after all, they are also "sweet-loving". In this case, when the juice-sucking woodpecker absorbs the juice of the tree, it can also eliminate a few greedy insects.
Juice-absorbing woodpeckers not only destroy the bark, but also absorb the sap of trunk
However, , a practice of relying on destroying trees to attract insects and then destroying them is indeed like a "quack doctor" . Because the holes pecked out by the juice-absorbing woodpeckers are often very deep and often go deeper in the same position. In this case, some trees will die from fungal infection.
It is not difficult to see that their technology to "treat diseases" for trees is indeed not very good. Although they feed their stomachs, they kill the trees.
Speaking of this, some people may be curious about how these guys "did holes" in trees. Wouldn't they "concussion" if they peck with their mouths?
Will the woodpecker "draws holes" in the tree and will not cause concussion?
"Born Woodpecker"
In fact, many scientists are very curious about this matter. For example, the ornithologist Ivan Schwab at the University of California, has conducted special research. He observed the behavior of various woodpeckers when "treating trees" and found that they were indeed constantly attacking wood with their pointed beaks.
In theory, this high frequency and high intensity pecking will damage the eyes and brain of the woodpecker. But obviously, seeing the woodpecker still jumping around after digging holes every day, this kind of pecking has no effect on it.
After in-depth research, Shuwab discovered that the secret is actually in the woodpecker's skull. Its skull is like a huge sponge that can effectively protect the brain and is a typical "shock-absorbing" equipment.
The woodpecker's skull can help "shock-absorb"
As for the eyes, they have transparent instant membrane in their eyes, which will keep the automatic switch to avoid the "eyeballs" accidentally falling out when treating the tree.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-