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Hairy Woodpecker : Hairy Woodpecker Puugtuyuli I call this guy Harry, and his mate Harriet, and I see them quite a bit these Autumn days, especially during afternoon walks in the woods above my house. I often hear one of them yelp at me from behind a birch or aspen as it pecks at the bark for its favorite food, wood borers and bark beetles. The Hairy woodpecker is much shyer than its smaller cousins, the Downy and Three-toed woodpeckers. It doesn't usually allow close approach by humans, and dodges around the tree trunk to hide, or it takes off in a graceful bounding flight for trees farther away. I didn't see these big woodpeckers much on the Yukon Delta coast when I taught out there, but when I moved up to Marshall where there were more trees every once in awhile I'd come across them during my daily walks or skis in the area. When I asked for their Yupik name I was told it was Puugtuyuli, meaning "the one who is good at diving through the air and banging its head against something." It's the same Yupik name used for all the woodpeckers that hang around the YK Delta during the winter. They were given the common English name "hairy" because of their hairy appearance. Their scientific name, Picoides villosus, means basically the same thing, "woodpecker with shaggy plumage." Sometimes, if I was really lucky during my walks, I might catch a glimpse of the bird striking its beak on the wood and holding it there. In this way, it detects, by feeling, the vibrations and locations of its prey. It also listens intently for the sounds of insect jaws crunching wood on the inside of the bark. Here in Fairbanks, I've noticed over the years that Harry and Harriet have a loose association during the onset of winter, but that as the season progresses they forage more and more closely together. By midwinter they have paired up again in preparation for nesting in spring. This occurs rather early and is accompanied by a courtship ritual of intense drumming by both sexes. The drumming is usually done during flight and involves beating the wings against the bird's flank to produce a long, loud rolling tattoo. Other rituals include tapping at real or false nest sites by the female, and a quivering, fluttering flight by the female to attract the male. These courtship rituals are all performed within the female's original winter territory, since it is here that nesting will take place. When warmer weather finally rolls around in late March, the pair begin to excavate a nest in the dead or dying branch of a live aspen, birch or spruce tree. The male usually selects the actual nest site, then does most of the work in hollowing out a hole adequate for them to set up their household in. The nest cavity is usually about a foot deep and located from 5-60 feet above the ground. It takes the birds three weeks to do the digging and when they're finished they line the nest with a soft bed of fine wood chips. Harriet lays four white eggs on these chips and shares duty with Harry in their incubation. She does daytime duty while her hubby does the night shift. The eggs hatch in two weeks at which time both parents also cooperate in feeding the nestlings. Harry hunts farther away from the nest but brings back more food for the new family. Harriet forages nearby so she can be within hearing distance of her young. They do this for about a month when finally the brood is ready to take their first leap from the edge of the tree hole and fly free as a, well ..., free as a bird, and begin to fend for themselves in life. As the young are learning the art of flight, their parents help transition them into their new more dangerous life by feeding them for a while. At the same time they show them how to forage for themselves. Part of this learning process involves the use of their specialized tongue. Over the one hundred million or more years of their evolution, they and other woodpeckers have acquired a tongue unlike that of other birds. Exceptionally long, it wraps around the skull and is anchored at the base of their upper beak. They extend it into a hole in tree bark by a complex system which includes very long hyoid (tongue-base) bones. The tips of their tongues are barbed to extract insects from holes, and the tongue is coated with sticky saliva which helps them hold on to their prey as it is extracted from the hole. Interesting, eh? » List of Yupik Birds

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