A Japanese e book on Hokkaido birds lists 6 species of woodpeckers – I noticed three of them, presumably the commonest ones.
Essentially the most attention-grabbing of the three (a minimum of to me) is the Japanese Pygmy Woodpecker. Whereas the title suggests an endemic, it’s not – it may also be present in Northeastern China, components of Russia and the Koreas (although I might most likely advise in opposition to a birding journey to North Korea).
No less than its scientific title kizuki sounds very Japanese to me. It supposedly relies on the Japanese title for woodpecker, Kizuki (= Kitutuki < ki wooden; tutuki pecking), although the HBW seems like it’s not totally satisfied of this clarification.
Give researchers an costly toy akin to a Scanning Electron Microscope, and they’re going to apply it to something at hand. The outcome is perhaps a paper akin to this one: “Scanning Electron Microscopic Examine of the Tongue within the Japanese Pygmy Woodpecker“. Which options thrilling sentences akin to “The dorsal floor of the lingual physique offered easy side and in each lateral sides of the basis of the lingual physique, a pair of openings of the lingual glands was noticed.”
Whereas Japanese Pygmy Woodpeckers nonetheless excavate their nest holes, they don’t seem to be excellent at it (a paper places it extra politely and talks of “weak excavation capabilities”). The answer: use timber with smooth wooden, and even rotten timber (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 circumstances. In some areas, they’ve apparently realized that drumming on metallic creates a greater (possibly louder?) sound than drumming on wooden, and now favor to drum on metallic phone poles or plates (supply). This additionally helps when timber are felled. Furthermore, a minimum of in a single particular person remark, a hen appears to have rigorously 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 selection of timber – no “prey on the weak and decaying”, however slightly a desire for giant timber (median diameter at breast peak: 50 cm), excessive above the bottom (median 11 m), and largely in residing timber (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 incidence of humor in a scientific summary. Particularly, the summary begins with the sentence “Animals—together with conservation biologists—use acoustic indicators to acknowledge and observe people.”
Among the ecological significance of the Nice Noticed Woodpecker comes from its function as an actual property developer, luckily with out the debt issues that at present plague the Chinese language firms taking on this function within the human world. One research on Hokkaido discovered that 47 out of 110 previous 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 few of the actually previous ones don’t even have wifi but).
At first look, the White-backed Woodpecker to me appears to be like very comparable. Granted, it’s a bit larger, 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 shouldn’t have to depend on drumming patterns for intercourse willpower (homework: which of the pictures of the species right here present a male?)
If you take care of beetles slightly than for woodpeckers, you would possibly nonetheless be inquisitive about defending the hen. One research discovered that “if the White-backed Woodpecker might be saved in Finland, a collection of threatened saproxylic beetles will most probably be saved as effectively.” The logic behind that is that each the beetles and the woodpecker species rely on the identical useful resource, decaying wooden.
If you wish to impress anyone with this data, ensure to make use of the time period “umbrella species” – it should instantly lend you an air of profound experience.
However in fact, many forests will not be protected, and thus their habitat high quality declines. One paper describes an attention-grabbing strategy to monitoring this decline. It appears to be like on the feather development bars of present and previous museum specimens – apparently, wider bars point out higher residing circumstances and thus habitat high quality. And certainly, this exhibits 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 development bars. Nonetheless, if I had been to make use of that time period, I might most likely should observe the pronunciation just a few instances to keep away from any embarrassing errors).
