Skip to main content Skip to navigation
Home
Today's Show: Migration Routes Evolve
Illustration from cover of Living on the Wind by Scott Weidensaul
Listen In
  • Today's Show
  • Listen
    • Daily Shows
    • Threatened
    • Grouse
    • BirdNote Presents
    • How to Listen
  • Explore
    • Field Notes
    • Sights & Sounds
    • Birdwatching
    • Resources for Educators
  • How to Help Birds
    • At Home
    • In Your Community
    • Success Stories
  • About
    • The BirdNote Story
    • The Team
    • Partners
    • For Radio Stations
    • Funding
    • Contact Us
    • FAQs
    • Support BirdNote
  • Donate

Drumming with Woodpeckers - West

Subscribe to the Podcast
Download
  • Share This:
  • Share to Facebook
  • Share to Twitter
  • Share to Email
Pileated Woodpecker
© Jerry McFarland

Early spring in the West resounds with the percussive hammering of woodpeckers. Their rhythmic drumming functions as other birds' songs do, to broadcast over a long distance a clear statement of territory and mating rights. Learn about this Pileated Woodpecker and the others in this show - the Red-breasted Sapsucker, the Williamson's Sapsucker, and Downy Woodpecker - at Cornell's All About Birds.

  • Full Transcript
  • Credits

BirdNote®

Drumming with Woodpeckers - West

Written by Bob Sundstrom
 
This is BirdNote!
[Drum of a Downy Woodpecker]
Like a jazz player beating out a drum roll, a woodpecker uses its bill to rap out a brisk series of notes. [Drum of a Downy Woodpecker]
Early spring resounds with the percussive hammering of woodpeckers. Their rhythmic drumming works like many birds’ songs. It broadcasts to other woodpeckers over a long distance a clear assertion of territorial and mating rights. [Drum of a Downy Woodpecker]
We also hear woodpeckers knocking on wood when they are carving holes in trees to create nest cavities or extract insect prey, but these whacks are more methodical. [Sound of a woodpecker excavating, any species].
 Woodpeckers in the West offer a fascinating cast of different drummers. A hefty Pileated Woodpecker lets go a resounding tattoo against a hollow trunk [Pileated Woodpecker drumming]. A Red-breasted Sapsucker seems to be signaling in Morse code, as it snaps its bill against a stub of dead branch [Red-breasted Sapsucker drums]. And a Williamson’s Sapsucker bangs out a triple drum roll [Williamson’s Sapsucker drums].
For any woodpecker, it’s all about proclaiming a sound signal as far and as loud as possible. And as it searches for the most resonant drum, it might just find that your metal rain-gutter makes the best music [Red-breasted Sapsucker drumming on metal].
For BirdNote, I’m Michael Stein. [Williamson’s Sapsucker drumming]
###

Bird audio provided by The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Downy Woodpecker and Red-breasted Sapsucker drumming and foraging Pileated Woodpecker recorded by G.A. Keller. Pileated Woodpecker and Williamson Sapsucker drumming recorded by D.S. Herr. Red-breasted Sapsucker drumming on metal recorded by Susannah Buhrman.
Producer: John Kessler
© 2009 Tune In to Nature.org / March 2020

ID# 030207drummersKPLU   woodpecker-06-MS-2009-03-11

Bob Sundstrom
Writer
Michael Stein
Narrator
Jerry McFarland
Photographer
Support More Shows Like This
Tagsbreeding display sound West woodpecker

Related Resources

More about the Red-breasted Sapsucker at All About BirdsPileated Woodpecker - learn more at All About BirdsLearn more about the Williamson's Sapsucker at All about BirdsDowny Woodpecker - a bird you may see at your feeder - more at All about Birds

More About These Birds

Pileated Woodpecker (Dryocopus pileatus)

Dryocopus pileatus

Downy Woodpecker (Picoides pubescens)

Picoides pubescens

Red-breasted Sapsucker (Sphyrapicus ruber)

Sphyrapicus ruber

Williamson's Sapsucker (Sphyrapicus thyroideus)

Sphyrapicus thyroideus

Sights & Sounds

Related Field Notes

February 7, 2019

Palm Cockatoos - Different Drummers

By BirdNote Gallery
Male Palm Cockatoos keep the beat during courtship, creating tools to make music!
March 16, 2016

Woodpeckers - Some of Nature's Finest Drummers

By BirdNote Gallery
Yikes! What's that bird doing, pounding on my house?

Birds connect us with the joy and wonder of nature. By telling vivid, sound-rich stories about birds and the challenges they face, BirdNote inspires listeners to care about the natural world – and take steps to protect it.

Support BirdNote

  • Daily Shows
  • Field Notes
  • BirdNote Presents
  • Sights & Sounds
  • About BirdNote
  • Contact BirdNote
Sign up for our newsletter!
  • BirdNote on Facebook
  • BirdNote on Twitter
  • BirdNote on Instagram

Copyright 2020. All rights reserved.

  • Privacy Policy