Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
ated woodpeckers survive here? This species was often studied in remote for-
ests where its ecological importance as a facilitator was rightly recognized as
sensitive to timber harvest. The other large American woodpecker, the ivory-
billed, had already succumbed to our timber greed, and some scientists
expected the pileated to follow suit. Yet here it was, digging carpenter ants
from a dead stump, knocking back red huckleberries and ink-black cascara
berries, and mooching suet from my feeder. And this was typical; pileateds
live in just about all forested suburbs of the United States, from New England
to Florida and westward to the Pacii c. To learn more about the largest extant
woodpecker in North America required some hands-on work and a willing
graduate student.
The woodpecker decoy was a poor representation of the real bird. It was short
and squat, but the color was true, and the red feathers scavenged from my l y-
tying supplies gave some life to the Styrofoam bird, especially in a breeze. I
watched from a distance as Jorge Tomasevic, an eager student willing to live
among the woodpeckers, cued the audio player. Territorial and contact calls
rang forth:
Peee, peee, peee, peee, peee, peee, peee, peee, peee! Wa, wa, wa, wa,
waak, waak, waak, waak, waak! Chachuck, chachuck, chachuck.
Then drum-
ming: an increasingly rapid
bop, bop, bop, bop, brrrrrrrt
as the recorded bird
rapped a resonant branch with its strong bill. The broadcast awoke the sleepy
forest. Minutes later, Jorge was running to the net we had strung by the decoy
to gather up his i rst subject: a male none too happy with the decoy, the re-
cording, or the human. By the time I got to them, the powerful bird had
bloodied Jorge's hands, but it mattered not. The Fulbright Fellow from Chile
was beaming like a kid on Christmas morning. His hard work provided a great
gift. Now, if we could just keep the bird from pulverizing our hands and quiet
its ear-piercing calls long enough to attach a radio transmitter, we'd be all set.
