Crossword clues for woodpecker
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Woodpecker \Wood"peck`er\, n. (Zo["o]l.) Any one of numerous species of scansorial birds belonging to Picus and many allied genera of the family Picid[ae].
Note: These birds have the tail feathers pointed and rigid at the tip to aid in climbing, and a strong chisellike bill with which they are able to drill holes in the bark and wood of trees in search of insect larv[ae] upon which most of the species feed. A few species feed partly upon the sap of trees (see Sap sucker, under Sap), others spend a portion of their time on the ground in search of ants and other insects. [1913 Webster] The most common European species are the greater spotted woodpecker ( Dendrocopus major), the lesser spotted woodpecker ( Dendrocopus minor), and the green woodpecker, or yaffle (see Yaffle). [1913 Webster] The best-known American species are the pileated woodpecker (see under Pileated), the ivory-billed woodpecker ( Campephilus principalis), which is one of the largest known species, the red-headed woodpecker, or red-head ( Melanerpes erythrocephalus), the red-bellied woodpecker ( Melanerpes Carolinus) (see Chab), the superciliary woodpecker ( Melanerpes superciliaris), the hairy woodpecker ( Dryobates villosus), the downy woodpecker ( Dryobates pubescens), the three-toed, woodpecker ( Picoides Americanus), the golden-winged woodpecker (see Flicker), and the sap suckers. See also Carpintero.
Woodpecker hornbill (Zo["o]l.), a black and white Asiatic hornbill ( Buceros pica) which resembles a woodpecker in color.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
Wiktionary
n. One of many species of bird from the subfamily ''Picinae'', with a sharp beak suitable for pecking holes in wood.
WordNet
n. bird with strong claws and a stiff tail adapted for climbing and a hard chisel-like bill for boring into wood for insects [syn: peckerwood, pecker]
Wikipedia
The woodpeckers are part of the Picidae family, a group of near-passerine birds that also consist of piculets, wrynecks, and sapsuckers. Members of this family are found worldwide, except for Australia, New Guinea, New Zealand, Madagascar, and the extreme polar regions. Most species live in forests or woodland habitats, although a few species are known to live in treeless areas, such as rocky hillsides and deserts.
The Picidae are just one of eight living families in the order Piciformes. Other members of Piciformes, such as the jacamars, puffbirds, barbets, toucans, and honeyguides, have traditionally been thought to be closely related to the woodpeckers, piculets, wrynecks, and sapsuckers. More recently, DNA sequence analyses have confirmed this view.
There are about 200 species and about 30 genera in this family. Many species are threatened or endangered due to loss of habitat or habitat fragmentation. Two species of woodpeckers, the ivory-billed woodpecker and the imperial woodpecker, have been considered extinct for about 30 years (although there has been speculation recently that these species may still exist).
Woodpeckers are near-passerine birds of the order Piciformes.
' Woodpecker' may also refer to:
Woodpecker is a 2008 comedic film starring Jon Hyrns and directed by Alex Karpovsky. The film follows Hyrns and his cohort, Wesley Yang, as they obsessively search the Arkansas bayou for proof that ivory-billed woodpecker is in fact not extinct.
Woodpecker is filmed in a docufiction style, set in the small Arkansas town of Brinkley. It incorporates faux-interviews with Brinkley residents recounting their experiences with the mysterious bird.
Hyrns becomes increasingly erratic and comic in his attempts to locate the animal.
Usage examples of "woodpecker".
As the couple walked up to their Buick, two mockingbirds flew away from its grill, one of them tweeting in a little-known dialect of the goldfinch, the other mixing a catbird cry with a raspy chord borrowed from a woodpecker.
They spoke reverently of forest food webs, of chickarees and insects and mule deer, of coyote and bobcat and pine marten and black bear, of ravens and kinglets and owls, of chickadees and sapsuckers and juncos and woodpeckers.
Then, thinking back to Noria and the First Rites ceremony, he recalled the white horsehide hanging on the wall behind the bed, decorated with the red heads of immature great spotted woodpeckers.
By then it was so quiet that, except for the tune, all that could be heard was a woodpecker pecking time, his red head darting in the dazzling greenery as he added counterpoint to the rhythm dictated by the whistle.
We have deer, gopher tortoises, piliated woodpeckers, armadillos, and many other wild creatures, some of whom are becoming unconscionably rare elsewhere.
The nickname they had bestowed upon him was Specht, Woodpecker, for his fiery topknot.
Quiet reigned in the forest, the lark was singing in the sky above the clearing, the hollow pecking of a woodpecker was heard and the tomtits darting among the drooping branches of the felled trees angrily twittered to each other.
The wonga pigeon and the little brown fantail and the woodpeckers and the honey-eaters and the diamond sparrows and white-eyes and silver-eyes all had paused to watch him go by.
Somewhere along the stream a pileated woodpecker began drumming against a tree trunk in search of an insect snack and the racket startled a pair of prothonotary warblers from their roost in a nearby hackberry sapling.
Then we kissed and parted, and I watched Macropha, my wife, and Nada, my daughter, till they melted into the sky, as they walked upon their journey to Swaziland, and was very sad, because, having lost Umslopogaas, he who in after days was named the Slaughterer and the Woodpecker, I must lose them also.
Thenceforth they knew Umslopogaas as the Woodpecker, and as Bulalio, or the Slaughterer, and by no other names.
The original inhabitants were of Italiote and Illyrian stock, but there was a tradition that Sabines had migrated east of the Apennine crest and settled in Picenum, bringing with them as their tutelary god Picus, the woodpecker, from which the region got its name.
The original inhabitants were of Italiote or Illyrian stock, but there was a tradition that Sabines had migrated east of the Apennine crest and settled in Picenum, bringing with them as their tutelary god Picus, the woodpecker, from which the region got its name.
Harris ambled away, Audubon set the scarlet-cheeked woodpecker on the grass and walked over to one of the pack horses.
Florida black bear, bobwhite quail, red-cockaded woodpecker, and more.