A Japanese e book on Hokkaido birds lists 6 species of woodpeckers – I noticed three of them, presumably the commonest ones.
Probably the most fascinating of the three (at the least to me) is the Japanese Pygmy Woodpecker. Whereas the identify suggests an endemic, it isn’t – it may also be present in Northeastern China, elements of Russia and the Koreas (although I’d in all probability advise towards a birding journey to North Korea).
A minimum of its scientific identify kizuki sounds very Japanese to me. It supposedly relies on the Japanese identify for woodpecker, Kizuki (= Kitutuki < ki wooden; tutuki pecking), although the HBW seems like it isn’t completely satisfied of this rationalization.
Give researchers an costly toy reminiscent of a Scanning Electron Microscope, and they’ll apply it to something at hand. The outcome is likely to be a paper reminiscent of this one: “Scanning Electron Microscopic Research of the Tongue within the Japanese Pygmy Woodpecker“. Which options thrilling sentences reminiscent of “The dorsal floor of the lingual physique introduced clean facet and in each lateral sides of the foundation of the lingual physique, a pair of openings of the lingual glands was noticed.”
Whereas Japanese Pygmy Woodpeckers nonetheless excavate their nest holes, they aren’t superb at it (a paper places it extra politely and talks of “weak excavation capabilities”). The answer: use bushes with smooth wooden, and even rotten bushes (identical supply). If even that’s an excessive amount of work, discover a gap already occupied by one other Japanese Pygmy Woodpecker pair and kick them out (supply: HBW).
Certainly, the species appears fairly adaptable to altering environmental situations. In some areas, they’ve apparently realized that drumming on metallic creates a greater (possibly louder?) sound than drumming on wooden, and now choose to drum on metallic phone poles or plates (supply). This additionally helps when bushes are felled. Furthermore, at the least in a single particular person statement, a hen appears to have fastidiously chosen the purpose of a metallic plate that creates the highest-pitched sound (supply).
In distinction, the Nice Noticed Woodpecker is described as a robust excavator. And that is mirrored in its alternative of bushes – no “prey on the weak and decaying”, however fairly a choice for giant bushes (median diameter at breast peak: 50 cm), excessive above the bottom (median 11 m), and largely in dwelling bushes (supply).
Are you able to inform the intercourse of a Nice Noticed Woodpecker by its drumming sample? For instance, is there the equal of a “mansplaining” drum sample solely utilized by the males? One paper says no.
Although that may be a bit disappointing, the paper nonetheless delights with the uncommon prevalence of humor in a scientific summary. Particularly, the summary begins with the sentence “Animals—together with conservation biologists—use acoustic alerts to acknowledge and observe people.”
A few of the ecological significance of the Nice Noticed Woodpecker comes from its function as an actual property developer, fortuitously with out the debt issues that at present plague the Chinese language firms taking over this function within the human world. One research on Hokkaido discovered that 47 out of 110 outdated woodpecker holes had been utilized by renters, which within the organic world are referred to as secondary cavity customers. And as within the human world, the suitability of those holes decreases with time (presumably a number of the actually outdated ones don’t even have wifi but).
At first look, the White-backed Woodpecker to me seems very related. Granted, it’s a bit greater, however not by a lot. One distinction is described right here.
Just like the Nice Noticed Woodpecker, male White-backed Woodpeckers have a crimson crown, so conservation biologists don’t have to depend on drumming patterns for intercourse dedication (homework: which of the photographs of the species right here present a male?)
If you take care of beetles fairly than for woodpeckers, you would possibly nonetheless be fascinated by defending the hen. One research discovered that “if the White-backed Woodpecker will be saved in Finland, a set of threatened saproxylic beetles will almost definitely be saved as nicely.” The logic behind that is that each the beetles and the woodpecker species rely upon the identical useful resource, decaying wooden.
If you wish to impress any person with this info, make sure that to make use of the time period “umbrella species” – it can instantly lend you an air of profound experience.
However after all, many forests are usually not protected, and thus their habitat high quality declines. One paper describes an fascinating method to monitoring this decline. It seems on the feather progress bars of present and outdated museum specimens – apparently, wider bars point out higher dwelling situations and thus habitat high quality. And certainly, this reveals that the White-backed Woodpecker‘s habitat high quality in Sweden declined.
(One other time period to impress individuals: Ptilochronology is the research of the expansion charges of feathers by the measuring of progress bars. Nonetheless, if I had been to make use of that time period, I’d in all probability should follow the pronunciation a couple of occasions to keep away from any embarrassing errors).
