Woodpecker, any of about 180 species of birds noted for probing for insects in tree bark and for chiseling nest holes in deadwood.
Woodpeckers are remarkable birds known for their distinctive drumming and tree-pecking behaviors, belonging to the family Picidae, which includes over 240 species worldwide, as recognized by the International Ornithological Committee (IOC). Members of this family are found worldwide, except for Australia, New Guinea, New Zealand, Madagascar and the extreme polar regions. Most species live in ...
How can woodpeckers hammer into wood to find food or excavate nests without getting headaches? Founding Editor Eldon Greij explains.
In my third year of reporting on the coronavirus pandemic, I find woodpeckers, which can ram their heads against hard surfaces about 20 times a second, to be incredibly relatable. But the birds’ ...
Interior Alaskan forests have only six native tree species: white spruce, black spruce, quaking aspen, balsam poplar, larch (tamarack) and paper birch. Northern Canadian forests have all of those, plus jack pine, balsam fir and lodgepole pine. Since northern Canada and interior Alaska share the same grueling climate and extremes of daylength, why are the Canadian tree species absent from ...
It is common for people in interior Alaska and corresponding areas of northwestern Canada to use the name cottonwood when referring to one widespread variety of deciduous tree.
A tree's age can be easily determined by counting its growth rings, as any Boy or Girl Scout knows. Annually, the tree adds new layers of wood which thicken during the growing season and thin during the winter. These annual growth rings are easily discernible (and countable) in cross-sections of the tree's trunk. In good growing years, when sunlight and rainfall are plentiful, the growth rings ...