We always associate woodpeckers with wood-boring beetles and their larvae, ants, termites and a host of other bark-inhabiting insects which they are known to feed on. But do you know that these birds have a sweet tooth (I mean a sweet beak!)?
Here is a Lesser Goldenbacked woodpecker (aka Black-rumped Flameback) making a meal of a ripe Papaya fruit and also competing with a Rose-ringed parakeet in our vegetable garden.
More recently (just earlier this week), I found a bird relishing a ripe custard-apple on a tree near the Malli Baavi.
I have, elsewhere, seen these birds probing flowers like the Red Silk-cotton and Coral trees for nectar. Ripe mangos too are reported in the list of food items consumed by this bird. I have also seen photographs of this woodpecker eating a sapota or chikoo fruit. Other species of woodpeckers too attracted to fruits and nectar.
Bird-lovers and photographers across the world often use ripe cut fruits to attract a variety of birds in their backyards.
- Santharam /12 August 2022