Red Cockaded Woodpeckers – Behavior

In the southeastern United States, a woodpecker is getting the attention of scientists, not so much from the way it looks, but for the remarkable way it raises its young. I’m Jim Metzner and this is the Pulse of the Planet.

ambience: call of Red Cockaded Woodpeckers

Blanc: As a woodpecker, they’re just an unremarkable looking little bird. They’re called red cockaded woodpeckers, but when you look at them, the red is just a tiny little dot called a cockade, which is right above their ear, and it’s only on the adult males and they only display it when they’re being aggressive towards another bird.

Lori Blanc is a research scientist in the department of biological sciences at Virginia Tech.

Blanc: it’s the behavior of red cockaded woodpeckers that makes them so special. They have a complex social system. They live in these extended family groups. So they have a male and female who are the breeders, the mother and the father. And then they’ll have offspring one year. And some of them will leave to find their own territories when they’re old enough. But often, they’ll have their offspring stay behind for many many years and help raise future clutches of young and not breed. They are perfectly capable of breeding, but they don’t. They help raise their siblings and they do this to stay and wait to acquire that territory, because the territory is so precious. You can have 15 years of family groups staying on a territory and these young males will kind of queue up, based on their social rank, which is largely age related. And they’ll wait in line and they’ll help raise future brothers and sisters until the father dies.
When the father dies, the oldest helper mail will kick out the mother, take over the breeding position, and then a new female will come in and then the process will start over.

We’ll hear more on the Red Cockaded Woodpecker in future programs. I’m Jim Metzner and this is the Pulse of the Planet.

Red Cockaded Woodpeckers - Behavior

Young red cockaded woodpeckers continue to help raise their brothers and sisters until the father dies.

Air Date:01/09/2015

Scientist:

Transcript:

Red Cockaded Woodpeckers - Behavior

In the southeastern United States, a woodpecker is getting the attention of scientists, not so much from the way it looks, but for the remarkable way it raises its young. I'm Jim Metzner and this is the Pulse of the Planet.

ambience: call of Red Cockaded Woodpeckers

Blanc: As a woodpecker, they're just an unremarkable looking little bird. They're called red cockaded woodpeckers, but when you look at them, the red is just a tiny little dot called a cockade, which is right above their ear, and it's only on the adult males and they only display it when they're being aggressive towards another bird.

Lori Blanc is a research scientist in the department of biological sciences at Virginia Tech.

Blanc: it's the behavior of red cockaded woodpeckers that makes them so special. They have a complex social system. They live in these extended family groups. So they have a male and female who are the breeders, the mother and the father. And then they'll have offspring one year. And some of them will leave to find their own territories when they're old enough. But often, they'll have their offspring stay behind for many many years and help raise future clutches of young and not breed. They are perfectly capable of breeding, but they don't. They help raise their siblings and they do this to stay and wait to acquire that territory, because the territory is so precious. You can have 15 years of family groups staying on a territory and these young males will kind of queue up, based on their social rank, which is largely age related. And they'll wait in line and they'll help raise future brothers and sisters until the father dies.
When the father dies, the oldest helper mail will kick out the mother, take over the breeding position, and then a new female will come in and then the process will start over.

We'll hear more on the Red Cockaded Woodpecker in future programs. I'm Jim Metzner and this is the Pulse of the Planet.