Acorn woodpecker
Melanerpes formicivorus
— Where the name comes from
Melanerpes is Greek, mélas, “black”, and herpēs, “creeper”: the black woodpecker that climbs trunks. Formicivorus means “ant-eater”, and it is a misnomer: it does eat ants, but its diet revolves around acorns, as the Italian name, “acorn woodpecker”, says.
— Facts
- Group
- Birds · Aves
- Order
- Woodpeckers and toucans
- Habitat
- Oak woodland and mixed pine-oak forest
- Range
- Western United States, Mexico and Central America to Colombia
- Size
- 21–23 cm, 65–90 g
- Diet
- Acorns, sap, insects caught in flight, fruit
- Lifespan
- Over 15 years the record
— Characteristics
- 01
It lives in family groups that defend a territory together.
- 02
Several females lay their eggs in the same nest.
- 03
It has a clown’s face: red cap, white forehead, black throat.
— What sets it apart
It builds granaries. The group picks a tree, often a dead trunk or a telephone pole, and riddles it with holes, each exactly the size of an acorn: in autumn it pushes the nuts in one by one, and moves those that loosen as they dry into tighter holes. A single granary can hold tens of thousands of acorns, the work of generations. Group life has a cruel side too: when two females share a nest, each destroys the other’s eggs until they start laying on the same day.
