Woodpeckers

A woodpecker is the bird which can make a well-known sound rat-tat-tat-tat. The bird makes the sound by pecking at the tree or a telephone pole. It may be drilling the holes in wood to get something to eat. It may be digging out a nest. It may be drumming out a song to its mate.

          Woodpeckers have strong, sharp bills. Their tails are short and stubby with sharp points at the end. Most woodpeckers have four toes on each foot. Two point forward and two backward.

          Woodpeckers eat chiefly insects and insect eggs. To get insects which live in the wood, they hold fast with their toes and peck on the wood in front of them. They use their tongues to pull out any insect they find. Most woodpeckers have long sticky tongues with sharp point at the end.

          Woodpeckers of most kinds are very welcome in our garden and forests. They eat insects which harm trees. Only a few are not welcome. They are sapsuckers. As their name tells they drink sap from trees.

Adapted from The Golden Book Encyclopedia