This is Bird Note.

Like a jazz player beating out a drum roll, a woodpecker uses its bill to wrap out a

brisk series of notes.

Early spring resounds with the percussive hammering of woodpeckers.

Their rhythmic drumming works like many birds' songs.

Broadcasts to other woodpeckers over a long distance, a clear assertion of territorial

and mating rights.

We also hear woodpeckers knocking on wood when they're carving holes in trees to create

nest cavities or extract insect prey.

But these wax are more methodical.

Woodpeckers offer a fascinating cast of drummers.

A hefty piliated woodpecker lets go a resounding tattoo against a hollow trunk.

A yellow-bellied sap sucker seems to be signaling in Morse code as it snaps its bill against

a stub of dead branch.

And the little downy woodpeckers drum roll seems rather modest, rather short and not too

fast.

For any woodpecker, it's all about proclaiming a sound signal as far and as loud as possible.

And as it searches for the most resonant drum, it might just find that your metal rain

gutter makes the best music.

For Bird Note, I'm Michael Stein.