Out in the street by the mailbox was a bird making a ruckus. Strutting up and down, making his call every few seconds, he (or she) elicited screeches from a nearby blue jay and loud caws from a crow in a treetop. I crept closer, to get a better look. It was a black bird with white breast and a red spot on top of its head. I think it might have been one of these. (The call sounded a little bit like Woody.) When the bird spotted me, it flew up to one of the lower branches of a pine tree in the yard next door. There was another bird of the same species there. I may have seen part of the unusual mating ritual of the Acorn Woodpecker. This short article describes the cooperative breeding groups which this species forms. I had no idea that there were species that had this sort of social structure. If word gets out, I'm sure there will be groups of humans eager to attempt imitating them.
flying_blind) wrote, 
