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.
The male has a full red crown, as you see here. The female has a smaller red crown.
Some holes have acorns, some don’t. When the bird feeds on the stored acorns, they’ll also eat the insects that have been attracted to the acorn.
Holes will be drilled in anything wooden: fenceposts, wooden buildings, and the bark of oak tree snags, as you see here.