Hello and welcome.

This is the Science of Birds.

I am your host, Ivan Philipson.

The Science of Birds podcast is a lighthearted exploration of bird biology for lifelong learners.

I'm happy to say that it's Random Bird Thursday.

Random Bird Thursday episodes are relatively short and sweet.

In each, I spotlight a bird species that probably won't get featured in a full-length episode.

With over 11,000 bird species in the world,

Random Bird Thursday gives us a chance to celebrate one that we might otherwise overlook.

So let's go ahead and do it. Let's push the Random Bird Selector button and see who we're otherwise overlook. So let's go ahead and do it.

Let's push the random bird selector button

and see who we're talking about today.

Okay, we have the Little Woodpecker, vanilla ornus, passerinus.

That's pretty exciting.

You know, any woodpecker is an A-plus in my book, so this is great.

Let's go ahead and get into it.

Thank you. So as you might guess from the name, this is a small woodpecker.

And it's got a typical body shape for a small woodpecker.

It's got those stiff tail feathers that help the bird brace itself against the tree trunk when it's foraging,

and it's got the classic zygadactal toe arrangement of woodpeckers. Remember that? That's two toes forward and two toes back. Now when we say little, this is a very small woodpecker. It's

not the smallest member of the family, but it is one of the smaller species.

We're talking 5.5 to 6 inches long from beak to tail, which is about 14 to 15 centimeters.

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