Program - North Bay Woodpeckers by Stephen Shunk
March 10, 2009
North Bay Woodpeckers, Inside and Out
With Stephen Shunk
a Program of Napa Solano Audubon Society
Imagine, for a moment, slamming your face into a brick wall at 16 miles per hour. This self-destructive (and foolish) act would require you to exert about 1,200 g of force, almost certainly resulting in your death. Yet, a woodpecker applies the same force pounding its head against a tree up to 20 times per second, and as many as 12,000 times per day!
The woodpecker anatomy is perfectly suited for its unique lifestyle. In addition to their amazing excavation skill, some woodpecker species also possess adaptations for aerial acrobatics, for drilling sap wells, or for extracting ants from their underground burrows. Woodpecker natural history and behavior also show amazing specialization, making them one of the most fascinating of all the world's bird families. All five genera of North American woodpeckers are represented in the North Bay Area, exhibiting the entire range of woodpecker adaptation.
Join Oregon naturalist and woodpecker specialist, Stephen Shunk, as he presents the biographical story of the amazing woodpecker, bringing adaptation and specialization to the layperson's level, and emphasizing the North Bay's seven nesting woodpecker species.
Steve Shunk started birding nearly two decades ago in San Jose's Alum Rock Park, and he began teaching birding classes in the South Bay Area in 1992. He now leads birding tours across western North America through his company, Paradise Birding. Steve co-founded the East Cascades Bird Conservancy and the Oregon Birding Trails project and he currently leads bird surveys for various agencies and organizations from his home base in Central Oregon. For the last 10 years, Steve has studied woodpeckers on the east slope of Oregon's Cascade Mountains, and he recently completed the Peterson Reference Guide to Woodpeckers of North America.
Directions, map & details at www.napasolanoaudubon.com
North Bay Woodpeckers, Inside and Out
With Stephen Shunk
a Program of Napa Solano Audubon Society
Imagine, for a moment, slamming your face into a brick wall at 16 miles per hour. This self-destructive (and foolish) act would require you to exert about 1,200 g of force, almost certainly resulting in your death. Yet, a woodpecker applies the same force pounding its head against a tree up to 20 times per second, and as many as 12,000 times per day!
The woodpecker anatomy is perfectly suited for its unique lifestyle. In addition to their amazing excavation skill, some woodpecker species also possess adaptations for aerial acrobatics, for drilling sap wells, or for extracting ants from their underground burrows. Woodpecker natural history and behavior also show amazing specialization, making them one of the most fascinating of all the world's bird families. All five genera of North American woodpeckers are represented in the North Bay Area, exhibiting the entire range of woodpecker adaptation.
Join Oregon naturalist and woodpecker specialist, Stephen Shunk, as he presents the biographical story of the amazing woodpecker, bringing adaptation and specialization to the layperson's level, and emphasizing the North Bay's seven nesting woodpecker species.
Steve Shunk started birding nearly two decades ago in San Jose's Alum Rock Park, and he began teaching birding classes in the South Bay Area in 1992. He now leads birding tours across western North America through his company, Paradise Birding. Steve co-founded the East Cascades Bird Conservancy and the Oregon Birding Trails project and he currently leads bird surveys for various agencies and organizations from his home base in Central Oregon. For the last 10 years, Steve has studied woodpeckers on the east slope of Oregon's Cascade Mountains, and he recently completed the Peterson Reference Guide to Woodpeckers of North America.
Directions, map & details at www.napasolanoaudubon.com