A pest control company in California accidentally pulled 700 pounds of acorns from the walls of a home during a pest
inspection.
The exterminator later discovered that a pair of woodpeckers have stored acorns in this house for several years, and now the fruits of the birds’ labor have been cleared.
Thousands of acorns spilled out of the wall, and more appeared whenever Castro stuck his hand into the hole.
He soon discovered woodpeckers had stored tens of thousands of acorns, which he said weighed roughly 700 pounds, in a wall cavity, likely collected over the past two to five years.
Often woodpeckers store acorns on the outside of homes, sometimes in rain gutters, but rarely do they get them inside. In this case, Castro discovered the birds dropped their treasures through a hole in the chimney and entered the attic through a separate hole to feast on their stash.
Paul Bannick, who has written two books about woodpeckers, said the acorn woodpecker, a species common on the West Coast, often amasses thousands of the nuts for winter. Acorn woodpeckers can drill small holes in almost anything — trees, birdhouses, cabins, houses — to hoard food, he said.
橡树啄木鸟,图源:YouTube@Nature on PBS视频截图
班尼克说,橡子对橡树啄木鸟的繁殖至关重要,因为它们可以帮助雌性啄木鸟在整个冬天保持丰满和健康。
Acorns are vital for the birds’ breeding, Bannick said, because they help female woodpeckers stay plump and healthy throughout the winter.
“It’s a compulsive process,” said Bannick, a director at Conservation Northwest, a Seattle wildlife preservation organization. If the woodpeckers know there are acorns on the ground, “they’re going to collect and store as many as they possibly can.”
It took creating another three holes in the home’s walls to remove all the acorns, which ultimately piled and reached about 20 feet high, Castro estimated.
The acorns were thrown away as they were covered in droppings and bits of fiberglass from the wall’s insulation.
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