Blue Ridge Country January/February 2021 - 10

C R E AT U R E F E AT U R E

AH, THE EARLY-MORNING HAMMERING

Hard Headed

Why have woodpeckers fared better than many other birds in the Blue Ridge region?
By NANCY HENDERSON

he relentless tap-tap-tap was definitely annoying, admits David Wiedenfeld, senior conservation scientist at the American Bird Conservancy
in The Plains, Virginia, as he recalls the determined red-bellied woodpecker that once took a
liking to the metal flashing beneath the roof on
his woodland home.
" It made a lot of noise, " he says. " It'll wake you up
on Saturday mornings when you're trying to sleep in
and a woodpecker's out there at 6:30 a.m. hammering
on your house. "
Even so, he points out, when one of the hard-headed
birds appears to be drilling into your wood siding just
for the heck of it, it's really just trying to communicate
with its peers through " drumming, " especially during
breeding season, which starts around February in the
Blue Ridge region.
" They're actually doing it to make a loud
noise that other woodpeckers can hear. They
find a tree with a branch on it that
makes a good sound. But they
also find houses. "
Unlike many native
birds that have dwindled
or disappeared over the
years, woodpeckers in
the Appalachian Mountain states are actually
thriving, with an 18%
population growth nationwide since 1970. One
reason, says Wiedenfeld, is
that they build their nest holes
and look for beetle larvae and
other food in large, dead trees
or rotted branches, not in the
harder, live ones. And there are
plenty of decaying trunks and
limbs out there.
But that wasn't always the
case. A century ago, manmade

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farmsteads and pastures covered much of the area; by
the 1920s and '30s, forest habitat had dipped to an alltime low in the eastern part of the country. Then came
the Great Depression, which pushed agriculture westward to the Great Plains. Trees soon began to grow back
on sites such as Shenandoah National Park.
" So [woodpeckers] have got more habitat in comparison with grassland birds, which have actually continued
to lose habitat, " Wiedenfeld says. " We've got a lot more
mature forests, and mature forests, of course, have dead
trees or trees with dead branches, and the woodpeckers
like that. "
Unique physical traits have also contributed to their
survival. Bristly feathers cover their nostrils, keeping
them from inhaling wood chips as they chisel. Special
eyelids protect their eyes. And natural shock absorbers
in their bills and around their brains guard against bodily damage.
" All of this is so they can bang their head
on wood without being injured. And no,
they don't get headaches, " Wiedenfeld says. " One thing that I've always
been impressed about woodpeckers is just how well built they
are. They are very, very tough
birds. Their bones are strong.
They have good, solid muscles
for hammering. "
And because they rely
on big trees, they serve as
good indicators of forest
health, not to mention
effective pest controllers.
" They're really neat birds, "
says Wiedenfeld, noting
that most woodpeckers
don't migrate in winter. " They're always out
there, maintaining our
forests. And that can be
very important. "

Blue Ridge Country January/February 2021

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