Knock on wood: woodpeckers in zoos

DavidBrown

DavidBrown

Well-Known Member
15+ year member
I don't have any poll data to back it up, but it seems like woodpeckers are likely to be one of the most recognized and liked group of birds by the general public. They are attractive (Exhibit A: this beautiful picture of a greater yellow-naped woodpecker taken by ace Zoochat photographer Tim May: http://www.zoochat.com/416/greater-yellow-naped-woodpecker-prague-4th-291937/) and have interesting behavior and vocalizations. They are found across the Americas, Europe, Asia, and Africa in many temperate and tropical ecosystems. At one time they were also fairly prominent in popular culture when Woody Woodpecker cartoons played on television and at the movies. I suspect that he may not be a well known character any more though.

Woodpeckers seem like they could potentially be superstar species for zoo exhibition purposes, although this potential has never been developed to my knowledge. When I have seen woodpeckers in zoos it is usually a tropical species in a multi-species aviary that is there almost as an afterthought.

From zoo reviews and photos here on Zoochat I see that there are exhibits for pileated woodpeckers, perhaps the largest and most charismatic North American species, at the Virginia Aquarium(!) and Minnesota Zoo. Are there any zoos that folks have been to where woodpeckers are highlighted as the stars of the exhibit?

Does anybody know if there were ever Imperial or Ivory-billed woodpeckers in zoos? There was hope that the ivory-billed had escaped from the grave, but no one has seen one since their much ballyhooed appearance in 2005, so that sighting may have been a mirage.
 
Since nobody has responded I'll modify the question: what is your favorite woodpecker sighting in a zoo or the wild?

As a bonus I'll throw in a Woody Woodpecker cartoon:
 
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I have seen greater yellow-naped and Gila woodpeckers personally in zoos, but neither were in exhibits that highlighted them specifically apart from any other exhibit birds.

My favorite wild woodpecker sighting was this:
7174707360_d053ca06ba.jpg

Lewis's Woodpecker, not the best photo, but a spectacularly colored bird.
 
Thanks for posting the picture Ituri. That is a very pretty bird. We get Lewis Woodpeckers here in the winter time.
 
I get the inpression that wood peckers may be rather easily stressed and that it may be a hard compromise between welfare-visibility? I havent seen any in zoos, but I'd sure like to!
 
I've only seen 5 species

In captivity
White Woodpecker (Melanerpes candidus) Blackpool, Chester, London
Wagler's Woodpecker (Melanerpes rubricapillus) Winged World
Blond-crested Woodpecker (Celeus flavescens) Birdworld
Western Black-headed Woodpecker (Picus erythropygius nigregensis) Chester

And one wild species
Greater Spotted Woodpecker (Dendrocopus major)
 
I saw just three woodpeckers on my travels (in zoos, although I did hear one wild one):

Black Woodpecker (in an outdoor single-species aviary at Warsaw Zoo, Poland)
Greater Yellownape (in excellent mixed indoor Himalayan aviary, Prague Zoo, Czech Rep.)
Eurasian Wryneck (in one of the many small mixed aviaries, Plzen Zoo, Czech Rep.)

There are no woodpeckers native to Australasia, and none in any zoos here.
 
I've seen twenty species in the wild. The best are the piculets which are smaller than sparrows, but still act like woodpeckers, tapping away on tiny twigs.

Rufous piculet Sasia abnormis (Peninsular Malaysia, Sabah, Thailand, Sumatra)
Speckled piculet Picumnus innominatus (Thailand)
Bamboo woodpecker Gecinclus viridis (Thailand)
Buff-necked woodpecker Meiglyptes tukki (Peninsular Malaysia)
Buff-rumped woodpecker Meiglyptes tristis (Peninsular Malaysia)
Grey and buff woodpecker Hemicircus concretus (Peninsular Malaysia, Sabah)
Sunda pigmy woodpecker Dendrocopos moluccensis (Peninsular Malaysia, Singapore, Sumatra, Flores)
Sulawesi pigmy woodpecker Dendrocopos temmincki (Sulawesi)
Fulvous-breasted woodpecker Dendrocopos macei (Java)
Maroon woodpecker Blythipicus rubiginosus (Sabah)
Rufous woodpecker Celeus brachyurus (Singapore)
Banded woodpecker Picus miniaceus (Singapore, Sarawak, Sabah, Peninsular Malaysia, Sumatra)
Crimson-winged woodpecker Picus puniceus (Peninsular Malaysia, Sarawak)
Laced woodpecker Picus vittatus (Peninsular Malaysia)
Chequer-throated woodpecker Picus mentalis (Peninsular Malaysia)
Greater yellow-naped woodpecker Picus flavinucha (Thailand, Sumatra)
Common flameback Dinopium javanense (Singapore, Peninsular Malaysia, Sarawak)
Ashy woodpecker Mulleripicus fulvus (Sulawesi)
Great slaty woodpecker Mulleripicus pulverulentus (Sarawak)
Orange-backed woodpecker Reinwardtipicus validus (Peninsular Malaysia, Sabah, Java)
 
Chlidonias said:
I've seen twenty species in the wild. The best are the piculets which are smaller than sparrows, but still act like woodpeckers, tapping away on tiny twigs.
Click to expand...

Piculets are cool. I had never heard of these birds before you posted Chlidonias, so thanks for the introduction.

Do you have any pictures that you took of them that you could post?

Does anybody know if there are any piculet species in zoos?

[ame]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piculet[/ame]
 
DavidBrown said:
Piculets are cool. I had never heard of these birds before you posted Chlidonias, so thanks for the introduction.

Do you have any pictures that you took of them that you could post?
Click to expand...
unfortunately I have never ever got a serviceable photo of a woodpecker in the wild :(

I could make some pikelets and take a photo of those for you though.
 
Fine if we are listing all the species seen in the wild too, here's mine.

Gila Woodpecker
Lewis's Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
Hairy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Red-breasted Sapsucker
Red-naped Sapsucker
 
great slaty woodpecker at Ueno Zoo (Japan):


I also found this great video showing that woodpeckers are proof that God is real and evolution a lie. His arguments are sound.
 
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I have seen the following in Minnesota

Downy Woodpecker
Hairy Woodpecker
American Three-toed Woodpecker
Black-backed Woodpecker
Pileated Woodpecker
 
I also found this great video showing that woodpeckers are proof that God is real and evolution a lie. His arguments are sound.
Click to expand...

In case it was missed by anyone, several of his facts are... factually wrong. Fortunately, I see several people already commented on this below the video on youtube, incl. a link to The Evolution of the Woodpecker's Tongue
______________

Today it seems relatively few zoos keep woodpeckers and the European and North American mainly keep native species, but very few species from other continents. At least some species can be rather nasty to other bird (their beak is a great weapon too) and destructive to ordinary aviaries. I remember seeing the great slaty woodpecker at Ueno Zoo several years ago. Overall this zoos definitely belongs in the better category of Asian zoos, easily matching many Western zoos, and the aviary is quite large and with many plants. However, the massive size of the species (the largest woodpecker that indisputably is extant), the behavior it exhibited (it spent most its time hanging in the metal net) and the lack of large and tall tree trunks (in the wild this is a specialist that spends almost all its time very high up on large tree trunks) made me feel uneasy. I left with the opinion that this threatened species only belongs in zoos that are able to accomodate a pair for potential breeding in an exceptionally large, tall aviary with several large trunks.

I guess most other woodpeckers require much less space and there are some remarkably species that I believe would be great in zoos, like the beautiful crimson-mantled woodpecker, yellow-fronted woodpecker (at several zoos in the 80s and 90s but appears to have disappeared? It's common in its native range, sometimes even visiting bird tables), white-naped woodpecker and checker-throated woodpecker, the impressive Magellanic woodpecker, the Andean flicker from barren highlands above the treeline, the famous social acorn woodpecker (in a few US zoos), and the adorable, tiny piculets. A friend of mine saw the piculet at Walsrode in the 1980s (?) but he didn't remember the exact species and I haven't asked him about the aviary. In the wild the Asian, African and Antillean piculets generally require specific searching, but some of the South American species can be seen even on 'ordinary' tours that aren't heavily aimed at birding, e.g. ocellated piculet is regular on the trail between Aguas Calientes and Machu Picchu, white-wedged piculet is common in the Pantanal and even in the outskirts of Brasilia and white-barred piculet is common in wooded areas in southeast Brazil.
 
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Dallas used to have Red-bellied Woodpeckers in the reptile building when it still held birds. From what I noticed, the woodpeckers and the Green Jays that shared space with them, were the only birds that really got any visitor's attention as they were very noisy and active. I believe originally there were 2 of them but later on I only remember seeing one, although it would often drum on parts of the aviary.
ASDM has Gila Woodpeckers in their aviary as well as wild throughout the park.
Houston and San Diego have Greater Yellow-naped Woodpeckers. Houston had at least one free-flying in the indoor tropical aviary. San Diego had one in the Wings of Australasia area and at least another one somewhere else in the zoo in its own exhibit.
I believe that the DWA has a species of woodpecker but not positive.

As far as species seen in the wild, for the US, Acorn, Gila, Red-bellied, Golden-fronted and Downy Woodpeckers plus Northern Flicker, and for Europe Green Woodpecker.
 
In the Wild, I have seen:
Greater Spotted Woodpecker
Japanese Pygmy Woodpecker

In Captivity:
Great Slaty Woodpecker(last in captivity, at Ueno Zoo)
 
I don't actually believe I've ever seen Woodpeckers in zoos but here's my list of species I've seen in the wild

Acorn Woodpecker
American-Three Toed Woodpecker
Arizona Woodpecker
Black Backed Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
Gila Woodpecker
Gilded Flicker
Golden Fronted Woodpecker
Hairy Woodpecker
Ladder Backed Woodpecker
Lewis's Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Nuttall's Woodpecker
Red Breasted Sapsucker
Red Headed Woodpecker
Red Naped Sapsucker
White Headed Woodpecker
Williamson's Sapsucker

Living in Utah and moving from California definitely gives me a crazy advantage on this one
 
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