Magic Carpet Traveller
In European folk lore the woodpecker was often considered a weather prophet, its drumming indicating forthcoming changes. In Babylonia it was associated with fertility, in Ancient Greece it occupied the throne of Zeus the God of Thunder, and Roman mythology tells of the enchantress Circe falling in love with the woodland god Picus whom she turned into a woodpecker because he rejected her love.
The Iberian Green Woodpecker (Picus Sharpei) is the one most usually found in Spain, although the ones we saw in Aragon were black, red and white – easy, I thought, to look up in the bird book but how wrong I was. There are just too many varieties that could have “fitted the bill” about 200 species and about 30 sub-species.
Aragon & Woodpeckers
Recently returned from a camping trip in beautiful Monesterio de Piedra, Zaragosa, my decision to find out more about woodpeckers arose from their daily early morning drumming on the poplar trees surrounding the campsite. They like to make their presence known! Birds are a part of our everyday life which we take for granted, yet almost every bird has some ancient and symbolic association – woodpeckers, for example, relate to magic and rhythm and a spiritual connection can be made between their tapping in search of food and their territorial drumming and the stimulation of the human metaphysical energy centres, or chakras, of the head, i.e. the throat, brow (third eye) and crown. Symbolically, if those centres are stimulated into activity, latent talents and intuition will be activated to a greater degree, perhaps acting as a catalyst for major creative changes in someone’s life. These “master drummers” remind us of the natural rhythms of the Universe and that when we are not in synchronicity with them things do not work out for us.
To the Pueblo peoples and other Native Americans the feathers of woodpeckers and flickers were considered religious articles – a red feather on a prayer stick usually reflected war against some enemy, physical or spiritual, but when the feathers were worn in the hair they indicated that an individual was a member of a medicine society – the same energy that could be used for war could also be used for healing.
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However, I have learned a few common factors: Their extra small brains are protected from the rapid and repeated impacts when drumming by the orientation of the brain within the skull and the short duration of contact. As they drill they decelerate. Between feeding, excavating nest cavities and drumming, woodpeckers can peck up to 20 times per second, or a total of 8,000-12,000 pecks per day. They have an eye membrane that protects from flying debris and their nostrils are slit-like with a cover of special feathers. Their diet consists mainly of insects and grubs taken from living and dead trees, along with fruit, nuts and sap. Having hammered a hole into the wood their prey is excavated by a long barbed tongue, so ecologically they help to keep trees healthy by keeping them from suffering mass infestations. However, many of the Picidae species are threatened due to loss of habitat caused by industrial forestry, urban development, insecticide that eliminates food sources and fire control that removes deadwood and prevents new growth. They roost at night inside holes and, in most species, the roost will become the nest during the breeding season.
Typically monogamous, a pair work together to build a nest, incubate the eggs and raise the young – in most species the male does most of the excavation and then takes the night shift to incubate the white eggs – which might explain why the females drum so loudly in the mornings!
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Gray Garnett CQSW. Dip.SW Tel: 0034 607 828 828
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