You bird brain! Woody Woodpecker gets a beakful of concrete after hammering on 'urban' tree

 

By Daily Mail Reporter

Last updated at 8:26 AM on 12th June 2009

 

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Talk about barking up the wrong tree. This woodpecker was spotted drumming away at a concrete lamp-post he had mistaken for a wooden trunk.

He clattered valiantly with his beak for a few minutes before giving up.

To be fair to the young Great Spotted woodpecker, the weathered surface of the 20-year-old post covered in lichen and moss did look slightly tree-like.

 

Enlarge Bird brain: This juvenile Great Spotted woodpecker bit off more than he could chew after mistaking this lichen-covered lamp-post for a tree

But there was certainly no chance of breaking the 20-year-old post without a jackhammer - and no tasty grubs lurking inside, either.

 

The bird was spotted on the street in Cawood, near Selby, North Yorkshire. According to the RSPB, there are around 37,000 to 44,000 breeding pairs of his kind in the UK, mostly in England and Wales.

 

They forage for food by drilling into trees and then inserting their long sticky tongues to snatch out insects.

 

Woodpeckers have also developed certain features to cushion themselves from the impact of hammering, such as a smaller brain size (which might explain this fellow's silly mistake).

 

Enlarge How about I try from this side? The confused woodpecker begins to realise that the concrete structure is not going to give him the grubs he seeks

They did test its IQ, and it came out a couple of points higher than Paris Hilton's.............