How woodpeckers store their acorns
In autumn, woodpeckers behave in a behavior called "hoarding". They store more acorns than they can eat for the winter season. They peck holes into dead trees and then stuff an acorn into each hole. If an acorn doesn't fit perfectly into a hole, they discard it. One tree can have over 10,000 holes.
Woodpeckers can only carry one acorn per trip, put they still manage to store about 100 hundred acorns a day. They can travel about 12 miles a day while collecting acorns.
Woodpeckers must be constantly on the lookout for birds of prey, who kill about ⅕ of all the woodpeckers in the area. Another less deadly, but very annoying, rival is the squirrel. Brown squirrels love letting the woodpeckers do all the work of storing acorns, and then they come in and steal them. But whenever a woodpecker sees this happening, it swoops down and attacks the squirrel.
As for the discarded acorns, they soon grow into brand new oak trees, enabling the woodpecker life cycle to continue.
Woodpeckers can only carry one acorn per trip, put they still manage to store about 100 hundred acorns a day. They can travel about 12 miles a day while collecting acorns.
Woodpeckers must be constantly on the lookout for birds of prey, who kill about ⅕ of all the woodpeckers in the area. Another less deadly, but very annoying, rival is the squirrel. Brown squirrels love letting the woodpeckers do all the work of storing acorns, and then they come in and steal them. But whenever a woodpecker sees this happening, it swoops down and attacks the squirrel.
As for the discarded acorns, they soon grow into brand new oak trees, enabling the woodpecker life cycle to continue.
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