The acorn woodpecker is one of three types of woodpeckers that live up in the San Bernardino mountains. According to the website called: Green Valley Lake Wildflower and Bird watching, They are named for their practice of ramming acorns into rows of holes they make in dead trees.

Their little red hats, white bibs and pointy black beaks distinguish them from the other two types of woodpeckers.

– woodpeckers only move upwards while hunting for bugs on a tree trunk; their tail feathers have evolved into stiff props to lean back on while they are climbing. They listen for bugs (including bark beetles) under the bark, then peck an opening, then use their long sticky tongue to pull the bug out. The tongue can extend five inches past the bill; it coils up in their skull around their right eye. Luckily for all the birds that use their nest holes, the Acorn Woodpeckers are especially good hole drillers. Sometimes they will even have two, one for breeding and one for brooding in the fall — like having a vacation home to get away from the kids. They are also “co-operative breeders” which means the young from the year before will stay and help raise the new brood –from same wild bird site.