This is bird note.

When scientists need to capture birds for research, they often use a mist net, a length

of fine mesh strung between two poles on the ground.

But what about catching birds that stay up in the tree tops?

That was the challenge facing ornithologists in eastern Virginia, studying how red-headed

woodpecker parenting differs between the sexes.

Male and female red-headed woodpeckers look identical, so the scientists had to analyze

their DNA to sort them out.

This meant somehow catching them as they came and went from nest cavities high in dead

trees and giving them ID bands.

The solution?

Go fishing!

Well, kind of.

The researchers used fishing rods to cast ropes up into the trees, then lifted the nets

with a pulley system.

They'd suspend a net between two trees so it hung near a woodpecker nest.

They managed to catch and band 61 birds.

This peak into woodpecker family life showed that males and females both brought the nestlings

food, but they split up other parenting duties.

Males were in charge of removing feces from the nest, and females did more incubating

and brooding.

Just one more ingenious way that scientists are gathering info on our feathered neighbors.

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