Hello folks who wonder why we still haven't banned knock-knock jokes since they can be deemed offensive to the homeless,

Acorn Woodpeckers give away their location by the loud drumming on the telephone poles or their squeaky "waka-waka-waka" calls which are one of the easiest calls to identify.
Now you might be thinking aren't those sounds supposed to guarantee it a place in the songbird family?
As it turns out, just being able to use bird calls to communicate or attract mates is not how we classify birds as songbirds. You see, songbirds are all birds that belong to a specific order called Passeriformes(Passerines) and has nothing to do with the quality of their songs, which would be ironic since it has the California Scrub-Jay in the group as well. They rely on having similar feet structure i.e. three toes pointing forward and one pointing back which allows them to stand upright on the ground while allowing them to grip branches with a tight grip.


Acorn Woodpeckers have two front-facing toes and one facing back which allows them to easily grasp tree trunks while they are drilling holes or stashing acorns but it hampers their ability to walk on the ground. Woodpeckers on the ground will look as weird as the birthday kid who does not know what to do when everyone around is singing the birthday song.
Below is a woodpecker switching between different holes on the tree trunk with ease.


Acorn woodpeckers can be seen excavating holes in dead limbs of trees to store their stash of acorns. They want to make sure the acorns have a snug fit inside one of the those holes, but it becomes a problem when the acorns dry up and shrink in size. So the acorn woodpecker will constantly check on the holes which do not have a tight fit and will relocate acorns to another hole which is a better fit. "Get a hobby instead!" I shouted.
Below is the acorn woodpecker checking if the acorn has a snug fit by pulling it.


So I decided to give it a shot in checking if it was doing a good job in making sure the acorns were tightly fit, that a squirrel couldn't take it out.
Below is me struggling to pull out the acorns with my fat fingers. It did pass this test with flying colors.


Despite all this work they put in, they don't particularly love acorns, nor do their kids as it is bitter and nutrient sparse. Arthropods especially insects are the primary source of protein.
They claim to use these acorns in the winter when they can't find any other kinds of foods, but I still feel they hoard more than they need, since I have never seen an Acorn woodpecker panhandling at the red light near an intersection with a cardboard sign saying "Any acorn helps. God bless". Maybe humans learnt from these woodpeckers on stashing more than they need during the pandemic.
Below it is holding some winged insects that it is going to eat with some ketchup.


Karan Gathani

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