Posted by Cheri Penny on 6/16/2015
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7 Things You Must Know About Birding
There are at least 16 types of woodpeckers in North America and does not include the 4 types of sapsuckers and the Red-shafted Flicker or Yellow-shafted Flicker, known as the Northern Flickers and the Gilded Flicker. The Black-backed Woodpecker and the Three-toed Woodpecker are two of the most northern birds found most often in the northern conifers of Canada and in the American Rockies. The Downy Woodpecker and Hairy Woodpecker can be found throughout all of Canada and USA, with the Hairy Woodpecker being the most southern traveler of the two. The largest member of the woodpecker family is the Pileated Woodpecker and it is found across Canada and the eastern states. Two woodpeckers that are showing up in the southeastern portions of Canada although it lives in the eastern states, are the Red-headed Woodpecker and the Red-bellied Woodpecker.
- Woodpeckers eat suet, nuts, seeds, bugs, sap and fruit. They are often attracted to suet feeders or nut feeders.
- Woodpeckers will sip nectar out of saucer hummingbird feeders as well as feast on oranges at an oriole feeder.
- Woodpeckers can peck up to 20 times per second, or a total of 8,000-12,000 pecks per day.
- Both genders of woodpeckers drum to attract mates, establish territories, and communicate.
- Woodpeckers lay two to three sets of eggs per year, consisting of three to six eggs apiece. Birds breed in the spring and both genders tend to their young.
- Woodpecker's tongues are up to 11 cm long, and they wrap around the skull. Many have barbed tongues that help them extract bugs from trees and holes.
- Average life span of a wild woodpecker is from 4-11 years, depending on the species.