These social woodpeckers spend their days jamming acorns into the holes they drill. As acorns dry and shrink, they’ll move them into smaller holes. The maintenance of their stores takes a lot of their time … so they generally work cooperatively. They live in groups, and always keep a guard around their acorn horde to ensure no interlopers, such as a stellar jay, steals the nuts they have stored. Acorn woodpeckers have been found living in groups with as many as 7 breeding males, 3 breeding females and 10 non-breeding helpers. The group makes a single nest, and young are raised by the community.
These photographs were taken at the Pinnacles National Park, near Paicines, CA.
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