NUS Module Blogs

You may have heard that BBC will be providing videos on Youtube. Well in one such clip added by BBC Worldwide (Feb 2007) - Here David Attenborough imitates the double-tap sound of a Magellanic Woodpecker (Campephilus magellanicus) in the Patagonian forests of South America. Watch as he makes a double-knock sound on a resonant tree-trunk. The camera scans the quiet forest, and a reply is heard! The bird approaches to investigate its rival as David watches in fascination.

Magellanic Woodpeckers by Arthur Grosset, Chile, 2005. Courtesy of Mangoverde World Bird Guide.

Woodpeckers are able to cling certically to tree trunks and can drill holes into wood. Their chisel-shaped beaks and a "suspension system" in their skulls allow them to peck with great force but prevents them from getting soft in the head! Links of interest:

• Internet Bird Collection - videos of the Magellanic Woodpecker.
• The Free Sound Project: Woodpecker.wav - lovely recording of a bird chorus in France (2004) with the sound of a woodpecker emerging clearly from the background.
• Tina and Duncan MacDonald's Woodpeckers of the World - photos of 133 species of woodpeckers (there are ore than 200 species in all continents except Australia and Antartica.
• "The Hen-pecked Spouse of Our Smallest Woodpecker." By Ong Kiem Sian, 1999. Nature Watch, 7(2).

You can hear the drilling sound of the woodpecker even in Singapore. Here is a photo from Sungei Buloh Wetlands Reserve that I took in August last year. That familiar sound announced its presence, as it searched for insects on a mangrove tree nearby.