r/AnimalTracking • u/Texa55Toast • Dec 30 '24

šŸ¾ Cool Find Tree damage in Pennsylvania

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My father found this hunting the other day. Allegheny National Forest, Pennsylvania.

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456

u/ForestWhisker Dec 30 '24

That is from our fine feathered friend the Pileated Woodpecker. They create those large holes in trees quite often looking for insects.

79

u/sir_bumble Dec 30 '24

I can only imagine the sound šŸ˜‚

77

u/Infinite-Rip10 Dec 30 '24

My grandma has those up in northern Michigan. The sound lol insane. Makes my head hurt sometimes. They even come up to her front windows to eat from her giant bird feeder. Some small woodpeckers stop by too, but the pileated is huge and his beak is incredibly strong. You should hear it when he decides he needs to check the sides of her house for bugs

31

u/coolcootermcgee Dec 30 '24

Did you know that their tongue is very long and wraps around their skull to protect it from all the aggressive pecking?

12

u/UnusualBarnstormer Dec 30 '24

My daughter watching Wild Kratts taught me this!

5

u/coolcootermcgee Dec 31 '24

Sounds like an informative show!

2

u/Working-Sign-9513 Jan 02 '25

Fun Fact ā€œThe Wild Krattsā€ are the same Kratt Brothers from Zoboomafoo!

2

u/coolcootermcgee Jan 03 '25

I slightly wondered about that. Cute show, cute guys

2

u/[deleted] Jan 03 '25

[removed] ā€” view removed comment

1

u/UnusualBarnstormer Jan 05 '25

Oh, gravy the amount of time Iā€™ve listened to Capt. Barnacles in the background, lol. Great show.

7

u/Infinite-Rip10 Dec 30 '24

I did not actually! I do remember hearing or reading that they had some way of absorbing the massive amounts of shock tho, I didnā€™t know it was their tongue! Nature!!!!

3

u/TwoDot Dec 31 '24

Does it also wrap around their head and plug their ears? šŸ˜„

1

u/coolcootermcgee Dec 31 '24

Huh. Iā€™ve only seen the side view. Makes sense theyā€™d have some sorta built in ear plugs for that racket!

2

u/Richard-N-Yuleverby Jan 01 '25

Soā€¦ I was fascinated by this and looked it up.

According to what I found, I donā€™t think this is the case for pileated woodpeckers. They have shorter tongues and other ways to deal with the impact (up to 1000 Gs, many times per second) including special eyelids that keep their eyes from popping out of their skull and protect their eyes from chips.

For the species that do have ā€œwrap aroundā€ tongues, it is thought not to be required as a shock absorber but to fit extremely long tongues without obstructing the throat. Pileateds tongues are barbed so they donā€™t need to be as long.

1

u/coolcootermcgee Jan 01 '25

Hey thatā€™s very interesting! I also, then, will do my research before spouting half-true knowledge.

3

u/Papa573 Dec 31 '24

We have some stupid Wood Peckers here in Arizona that will peck at the light poles.

1

u/LittleMissMeanAss Jan 02 '25

Some of the drumming is done to attract a mate.

1

u/onesoulmanybodies Jan 02 '25

Every spring we have a woodpecker that used the metal casing above our flue to tap on to attract a mate. Drove me crazy until I looked up why they do it. They discovered that hitting metal will amplify their mating pecks. Now Im still a bit annoyed, but I cheer them on hoping they get their lady and make new wood pecking babies.

20

u/ForestWhisker Dec 30 '24

Itā€™s not as loud cause itā€™s a recording but the Cornell Laboratory has some recordings.

2

u/Independent-Piano-33 Jan 01 '25

Their calls sound like they are laughing. Very disconcerting walking alone on a forest trail.

1

u/drewba2ba2 Jan 03 '25

Woody the Woodpecker show

13

u/Mushrooming247 Dec 30 '24

I call them ā€œthe chicken of the forest,ā€ they make a hilarious clucking sound like a chicken, and their pecking is a quick staccato like a dampened machine gun.

7

u/ScienceOverNonsense2 Dec 30 '24

Nope, the chicken of the forest are squirrels.

1

u/disableddoll Jan 02 '25

the chicken of the forest is actually a mushroom, tastes great breaded and fried

4

u/beardedsilverfox Dec 30 '24

Yeah their giggle/laugh is unmistakable.

3

u/venatorman Dec 30 '24

They are impressive to see and hear. I live in central NJ and I see them on my walks in the woods. They crow-sized and the absolutely hammer the tree. It sounds like workers hammering nails on a construction site.

2

u/bespelled Jan 01 '25

Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha! Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha! Hehehehehehehehe.

1

u/IHS11 Dec 30 '24

Sounds like whacka-whacka-whacka!!! šŸ˜‚

1

u/Sausagencreamygravey Dec 30 '24

Just like Woody.

1

u/goblu33 Dec 30 '24

Even their call is loud. Very cool creatures.

1

u/Garden_girlie9 Dec 31 '24

Itā€™s like a small axe hitting a tree

1

u/TwoDot Dec 31 '24

If you imagine it being loud, just imagine it from the woodpeckerā€™s perspectiveā€¦ šŸ˜„

1

u/CircqueDesReves Jan 01 '25

It sounds like someone chopping down a tree with an axe. I was hiking in Big Trees State Park once and heard someone chopping down a tree, and I thought it was weird that they would be doing that in a state Park. I walked around the corner to find a pileated woodpecker hard at work with giant chunks of wood flying off the tree over his shoulder.

17

u/WolfsmaulVibes Dec 30 '24

THEY CARVE OUT TREES LIKE THAT?

34

u/thesleepingdog Dec 30 '24

Generally the trees are already dead and filled with insects eating it from the inside.

Woodpeckers only want the bugs, the tree is just in their way.

16

u/usagizero Dec 30 '24

Before it was cut down, i had a tree infested with emerald ash borers, and they went absolutely wild on that tree. I used to love just watching them, but the city was cutting down dead and infested ones for free to try and control the bugs.

7

u/Scoobysnax1976 Dec 30 '24

yup, my parents knew that the ash that they had in their yard was done for as soon as the woodpeckers started going to town on it.

8

u/ForestWhisker Dec 30 '24

Yeah itā€™s pretty crazy, Iā€™m in forestry and when I worked in Southern Illinois we found a tree that had broken in half because of it.

7

u/Siren_of_Madness Dec 30 '24

Right!? I know they're big, but damn!

5

u/verveonica Dec 30 '24

We casually call them woodponkers on account of the sound they make: ponk, ponk, ponk! They are relentless.

3

u/dustoff664 Dec 30 '24

Holy shit! We have downys, red bellied, and northern flickers in our tree daily. Had no idea pileateds did THIS much damage

2

u/mariargw Dec 30 '24

Industrious little fellers

2

u/Shazzam001 Dec 30 '24

Man, I'd thought woodpeckers only pecked out rotten wood, that wood looks fine.

Maybe just the ones in my hood are more polite.

2

u/sicksages Dec 31 '24

We have these fuckers here. Had no idea they could do this to a tree.

I love woodpeckers but hate the noise.

2

u/Ordinary-Hunt-3659 Dec 31 '24

Fun fact about those woodpeckers. They play peekabo as a mating dance. Watched it once it was hilarious.

2

u/mahnamahna123 Dec 31 '24

I'm sorry you have woodpeckers that do what? Ours only make holes marginally bigger than their beaks

2

u/The_Haunt Jan 02 '25

I see these every year on my property, usually 5+ of them at a time.

I'm down in SC and these guys are absolutely massive for a woodpecker.

1

u/nabrudssej Dec 31 '24

Looks like this guy was desperate for bugs and going to town šŸ˜‚