This week in the woods, we discovered this pileated woodpecker excavation in a dead tree, with wood chips and dislodged tinder polypore conks scattered around the tree’s base. If you look closely, you can see the chisel marks left by the bird’s bill, and also a hint at what was on the menu: the dark spot about three-fourths up the excavation is the exposed side of an insect larval gallery. As noted in this article by Meghan McCarthy McPhaul, the birds use their beaks to expose wood-boring insects, then use their tongues to snag their prey. “After excavating a hole,” she writes, “a pileated woodpecker will use its long, barbed tongue to reach and scrape out the buggy delicacy within.”
Woodpeckers aren’t the only birds who search out invertebrates beneath the bark of dead and dying trees. Tiny brown creepers will actually scuttle under loose bark to feed on cocoons, spiders and other small prey. We found this creeper gleaning insects in a bark “cave.”
What have you noticed in the woods this week? Submit a recent photo for possible inclusion in our monthly online Reader Photo Gallery.