Acorn Woodpecker
Melanerpes formicivorus · Woodpeckers
Acorn Woodpecker
San Diego, 6 March 2026
An Acorn Woodpecker in the oak country of Southern California, which is where it lives: a bird of the oak woodlands from Oregon to Colombia, and never far from the acorns it is named for. The garden's oaks are what brought it here.
A clown-faced woodpecker, and one of the very few North American birds that stores food on a large scale. A single "granary" tree, riddled with thousands of drilled holes each fitted with one acorn, is maintained and defended by an extended family for generations, and the birds breed cooperatively, with helpers, which is unusual for the family.
Birds, insects, plants and other wildlife, mostly from Brooklyn, with some from further afield.
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