Additionally, adult offspring often stay in their parents' nest and help raise the next generation of woodpeckers. Coalitions of adult Acorn woodpeckers nest together, localizing to storage granaries. With Acorn woodpeckers, cooperative breeding occurs in two ways: coalitions and family groups. Cooperative collectives may also contain groups with multiple breeding males and females (polygynandry). These master hoaders communicate with each other vocally and their call sounds almost like they are laughing.Īcorn woodpeckers range from monogamous pairs to breeding collectives, sometimes called "coalitions" - a social system when offspring receive care not only from their parents but also from additional group members, often called helpers.
Acorn woodpeckers will also spend their daytime sallying from tree limbs to catch insects, eating fruit and seeds, and drilling holes to drink the sap. The acorns are visible, and a group defends its granary against potential cache robbers like Steller's jays and Western scrub jays. As acorns dry out, they are moved to smaller holes and granary maintenance requires a significant amount of the bird's time. The woodpeckers then collect acorns and find a hole that is just the right size for the acorn. These holes, always above the snow line so that the acorns can be retrieved in winter, can be observed in the hundreds on large trees. They also drill holes in the thick bark of mature living trees. In some parts of their range, such as California, they create granaries or "acorn trees" by drilling holes in dead trees, dead branches, telephone poles, and wooden buildings. Acorn woodpeckers, as their name implies, depend heavily on acorns for food. Acorn woodpeckers have a complicated social structure they live in family groups which raise young, gather food, store and guard it all together.
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