Speaking of Nature: The pressures of parenthood: Bird dads, like human dads, deserve a happy Father’s Day
June is upon us and we are all set to celebrate Father’s Day this coming weekend. If we have any luck at all the weather will be cooperative, but the pattern has been pretty dismal so far; 12 consecutive rainy weekends according to my brother. It has been a rough spring for outdoor activities, but that is seen strictly through the human lens. Our wild neighbors have a schedule to keep and the game is on rain or shine.
Starting about half-way through the month of May, I noticed that the woodpeckers that come to my feeders were really doing a number on the peanuts that I put out for them. Presented in a feeder that is little more than a tube made of hardware cloth, the peanuts are wildly popular with almost all of the birds. The feeder made of wire mesh is basically the only way to prevent jays and squirrels from carrying them off too quickly. This gives everyone a chance at the treat while nearly eliminating the piracy of some of the community’s notorious seed catchers.
With so much activity around the peanut feeders I have also noticed a visible change in the plumage of several of the resident woodpeckers. The particular example that I share with you today is an adult male hairy woodpecker (Dryobates villosus). During the winter, this bird is a regular at my feeding station and he comes dine in an outfit of gorgeous black-and-white feathers. Both sexes are absolutely splendid in their “formal” attire and they can only be distinguished from one another by looking for a patch of red feathers on the back of the head, which indicates a male.
Things change in May and the birds are required to excavate nest holes and incubate eggs. Both sexes share in the work, which means that both sexes find themselves confined to the tight quarters for extended periods of time. This puts them in contact with dead wood, which will normally result in slightly dingy feathers. This spring has been extraordinarily wet, however, and it is fairly clear to me that the nest cavity being used by my resident pair of hairies has been somewhat compromised.
There has been so much water falling out of the sky that it has managed to infiltrate the nest. Dead wood is one thing when it is dry, but when it becomes constantly wet it will start to behave a little like tea leaves or coffee grounds, releasing chemicals in an aqueous solution. A bird with lustrous white plumage will quickly find its feathers stained by the chemicals from the wood and that is what appears to have happened to the bird at my feeders.
The female hairy woodpecker will lay a clutch of three to six white eggs in the nest cavity that was freshly excavated for the new nest. Like most songbirds, the incubation period for the eggs is about 14 days, but that is where the similarities end. Hairy woodpecker chicks require about a month of care before they are ready to leave the nest, which requires and extended period of parental care for the adults.
The big item on the list is food and that is where the value of a peanut feeder becomes apparent. Based on the level of activity at my feeding station, there are several pairs of woodpeckers of different species that are all raising plump, healthy chicks by stuffing them with peanuts. At some point in the not-too-distant future, pure chaos will break out when these adorable creatures finally leave the nest and follow their parents to the food. For now, however, the food must be delivered and, with the persistently wet weather that we have had, all of the adult birds have lost their luster.
Today’s photo says it all. A bedraggled-looking male hairy woodpecker takes a moment for himself and rests on one of the uprights that supports one of the railings on my deck. It was actively raining on the day that I took the photo and you can see that the bird is soaking wet and looks a shambles. The red patch on the back of his head, normally a glowing crimson, is barely noticeable. He is a hot mess, but that didn’t stop him from tirelessly harvesting food and bringing it back to his little family.
The nest cavity will also be a horrible mess. The parents will do their best to remove fecal material from the chicks so the nest remains relatively clean, but there will come a point where there is only so much that they can do. At some point the nest will be abandoned and, with the passage of time, it will become valuable real estate for other species in the forest, such as the great crested flycatcher featured in last week’s column.
This coming weekend we will celebrate Father’s Day and I can easily imagine my own father going out into the rain in order to prepare some delicious food in his beloved smoker. I sincerely hope that he doesn’t come back into the house looking as devastated as the male woodpecker, but I imagine that he could be slightly dampened during each forray. This won’t dampen his spirits, however, and he will make several trips before finally returning to the house with a marvelous feast. Dads are great, aren’t they? If you are lucky enough to be able to spend time with your own father this weekend, make sure he knows how great he is.
Bill Danielson has been a professional writer and nature photographer for 28 years. He has worked for the National Park Service, the US Forest Service, the Nature Conservancy and the Massachusetts State Parks and he currently teaches high school biology and physics. For more in formation visit his website at www.speakingofnature.com, or go to Speaking of Nature on Facebook.
Daily Hampshire Gazette
