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Woodpeckers Love Ants

Woodpeckers Love Ants

For a Pileated Woodpecker or a Northern Flicker, there’s nothing quite like a meal of ants.

BirdNote Daily

February 11, 20251m 28s

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Show Notes

Woodpeckers, as a group, eat far more ants than most other birds do. Many other vertebrates tend to avoid ants because of their stings or because of the noxious chemicals they contain, like formic acid. But woodpeckers just love them. A Pileated Woodpecker’s diet may include up to 50% ants!

More info and transcript at BirdNote.org

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Topics

pileated woodpeckerbirdingantssciencebirds