Tap-tap-tap-tap. Do you ever hear that sound while walking around outside? If you do, you are probably hearing the sound of a woodpecker. More than 200 kinds of woodpeckers are found on Earth and they live on every continent except Australia and Antarctica. They are not only some of our most beautiful birds—they are some of the most important. Woodpeckers are especially adapted to pound, dig, and drill into wood. The main reason? To find food. Ants, beetle grubs, and other insects live under bark and inside dead wood, and woodpeckers have evolved to take advantage of this “food fest.” Woodpecker beaks are super sturdy, and the birds have extra-long, sticky tongues to probe into tiny holes and passageways. A woodpecker’s head has special shock absorbing features that keep the birds from getting brain damage while they are pounding away! As they look for food, woodpeckers are also carving out holes to live in. This helps dozens of other kinds of birds. How? Because many cavity nesting birds need holes in which to sleep and nest, but almost none of these birds can excavate holes for themselves. By drilling holes, woodpeckers are helping bluebirds, house wrens, chickadees, titmice, and many other bird species. Even some mammals and reptiles take advantage of woodpecker holes! About 22 species of woodpeckers live in the US and Canada. The most common is probably the Northern Flicker. Unlike most other woodpeckers, Northern Flickers spend a lot of time on the ground slurping up ants. In spring, they make raucous calls and like to drum on rain gutters, utility poles, and metal chimneys! Most woodpeckers use drumming to attract mates and shout, “This is my territory! Keep out!” Downy Woodpeckers also adapt well to cities and neighborhoods. They are among the smallest woodpeckers and can survive almost anywhere there are trees. Many other woodpeckers live only in certain regions or habitats of the US. Black-backed Woodpeckers live only in burned forests. Golden-fronted Woodpeckers are found mainly in Texas. White-headed Woodpeckers live only in high mountain areas of the West Coast. Wherever you find them, woodpeckers are fun to watch and fascinating to learn about. The next time you see one, stop and observe it for a while. Take a moment to appreciate its behavior and how it makes our world a richer, more interesting place. Upper left: This large Guayaquil Woodpecker from Ecuador looks similar to our Pileated Woodpeckers, but some other South American woodpeckers come in radically different shapes and colors! Upper right: Hairy Woodpeckers are commonly found in forests and can dig deep for a juicy beetle grub! Lower left and right: Northern Flickers and Downey Woodpeckers are probably America's most adaptable woodpeckers and can often be seen in yards and neighborhoods. All photos courtesy of Sneed Collard and Braden Collard  The Black-backed Woodpecker lives almost exclusively in burned forests where large dead trees are still standing.  Woodpeckers provide nesting holes for dozens of our favorite birds including this spectacular Mountain Bluebird.  Sneed B. Collard III is the author of more than eighty books for young people, including his newest, Woodpeckers: Drilling Holes and Bagging Bugs, which received a starred review in Booklist magazine. To write the book, he and his son, Braden, spent four years observing and photographing woodpeckers in the wild. They even observed woodpeckers in Ecuador and Peru! Sneed visits schools and gives writing and professional development workshops all around the country. To learn more, visit his website, www.sneedbcollardiii.com. Also follow the blog that he and Braden write at www.fathersonbirding.com. You can read a review by Vicki Cobb here.
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The question “how smart are animals?” has puzzled many people for generations. Scientist Irene Pepperberg became intrigued with this problem after viewing NOVA TV programs about communication studies in apes and dolphins. Trained as a chemist, Irene decided then and there that her true passion was actually animal intelligence, not chemistry. Irene plunged into learning what was already known and the revolutionary ideas of scientists who were changing how people thought about animals. At that time, in the early 1970s, people thought that animals didn’t think and make decisions but merely responded moment by moment to their environments. But researchers working with apes and dolphins were overturning that concept and showing that indeed, animals could think, solve problems, and act intelligently about what they had learned. What about birds, Irene wondered? She had kept pet parakeets and knew they were smart and could learn to speak at least a few words. . She decided to study an African Grey parrot, a popular pet that can learn to pronounce words especially well. She bought a young parrot, named him Alex, and got to work. To probe Alex’s mind, Irene needed to teach him to use words to describe his world. This took long, patient training. After a few years Alex could name objects and foods, such as a key, a piece of wood, or a banana. He also learned several colors, and soon could label an object by both its label and color, such as identifying “green key” or “yellow corn.” He learned to distinguish whether an object was made of wood, paper, or rawhide, and could distinguish shapes such as “three-cornered” or “four-corner.” Alex also used his vocabulary to express his own desires. In the middle of an experimental session he might say “Want nut,” or “Wanna go shoulder.” As the years passed, Alex kept learning. If Irene presented him with a tray of items of different numbers and colors—say 2 green keys, 4 blue keys, and 6 red keys—he could correctly answer the question “What color four?” By the time he died suddenly and unexpectedly in 2007, Alex had learned more than 100 labels and showed understanding of many concepts. When people asked Irene why Alex was special, she’d reply, “Because a bird with a brain the size of a shelled walnut could do the kinds of things that young children do. And that changed our perception of what we mean by ‘bird brain.’ It changed the way we think about animal thinking.”
 Alex wasn’t only Irene’s experimental subject.; they were also good friends. Photo by William Muñoz.  Alex isn't the only bird Dorothy has written about. This book explores a University of Montana research project using blood samples from osprey chicks to investigate the effects of heavy metal refuse from mining on the ecology of the Clark Fork River. To learn more about The Call of the Osprey, go here. Dorothy Hinshaw Patent is a member of iNK's Authors on Call and is available for classroom programs through Field Trip Zoom, a terrific technology that requires only a computer, wifi, and a webcam. Click here to find out more. MLA 8 Citation Patent, Dorothy Hinshaw. "Alex the Parrot, a Real Bird Brain." Nonfiction Minute, iNK Think Tank, 15 May 2018, www.nonfictionminute.org/ the-nonfiction-minute/Alex-the-Parrot-a-Real-Bird-Brain. 
Dogs depend on us for friendship, food, and shelter. But wild animals run from people. They don’t turn to humans for help in getting out of trouble. Or do they? Until recently, most scientists thought animals could not think through multiple steps to solve problems. They believed only people could do that. But research into animal behavior shows this is not true. At least some animals think through their problems and come up with possible solutions. Take a young, wild raven, in Elmsdale, Nova Scotia, for example. In 2013, Gertie Cleary spied the bird perched on a fence—with porcupine quills stuck in its wing and face. Porcupine quills are barbed, like a fish hook. And they really hurt. So Cleary slipped on a pair of gloves before approaching the bird. Now you might think the raven would get scared and fly away. But not this bird. This bird wanted help. It screeched in pain each time Cleary plucked out a quill. But it sat still and let her do it. “When I pulled the one out of his wing,” Cleary says, “he fell off the fence I pulled it so hard.” Once quill-free, the raven flew away. A real-life mother goose went a step further. When one of her goslings got tangled up in a balloon string, she “called” the cops by pecking on the door of a police cruiser parked nearby. When the curious cops got out of their vehicle, she led them straight to her helpless baby. My family and I also encountered a bird in trouble. We were walking on a nature trail when the bushes suddenly erupted with chirping. We stopped, and the chirping increased. Looking closely, we found a sparrow stuck on a thistle bush! It was hanging upside down. We felt like heroes when we freed the little creature and watched it fly away. Birds aren’t the only animals that ask for help. In Fairfax, California, a deer approached a police car and stared at the officer inside until he noticed her broken leg. On a scorching hot day, in Adelaide, Australia, a thirsty koala begged a group of cyclists for a drink of water. And on a nature reserve, in South Africa, a desperate mother giraffe led a wildlife guide to her injured calf. In every case, kind humans helped. Maybe someday you will rescue an animal and save a life. Wouldn’t that be great?  A baby bird in trouble— has another bird gone for help? Photo by Aline Alexander Newman  A desperate koala approaches humans, letting them know he needs liquid.  A giraffe mother was willing to ask for human help in order to save her baby.  For more stories of remarkable kitties, check out Aline Alexander Newman’s new book, CAT TALES. In it, you’ll meet Millie, the adventurous cat who rock climbs with her owner; Pudditat, who acts as a “seeing eye” cat for the family dog; Leo, a lion who changed the life of one family forever; and 20 other charming cats that will pounce into your heart. Personalized copies of CAT TALES and Aline’s other books are available at www.alinealexandernewman.com. Aline is also a member of Authors on Call. Bring her into your classroom via interactive video conferencing. Here’s where you can learn more about her and her programs. MLA 8 Citation Newman, Aline Alexander. "Do Animals Ask for Help?" Nonfiction Minute, iNK Think Tank, 9 May 2018, www.nonfictionminute.org/the-nonfiction-minute/ Do-Animals-Ask-for-Help.  
Who doesn’t like penguins? Their waddling gait is fun to watch. They have little fear of humans so it’s easy to get next to them. Penguin movies such as Happy Feet and The Penguins of Madagascar are box office hits.
World Penguin Day on April 25 focuses attention on these loveable flightless fowl. Some people dress up in black and white clothing. Many read books about penguins or watch penguin movies. I was fortunate to get up close and personal to thousands of penguins during a trip to Antarctica. As our ship neared the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula—the closest point to the southern tip of South America which had been our departure point—we marveled at how effortlessly they skimmed through the water beside us. Soon we marveled at another characteristic. We were at least two or three miles offshore when the harsh odor of the poop generated by all those penguins wafted over the ship. We relished the opportunity to go ashore and wander through their rookeries. There were lots of juveniles, covered with gray fuzz that would eventually fall off and be replaced by their characteristic black and white plumage. None of them seemed to mind our presence. But we had several harsh reminders that we weren’t in a zoo. Several century-old stone huts provided shelter for explorers who slaughtered hundreds of penguins to eat during the long, harsh Antarctic winters. Skuas, nasty predatory birds, routinely feed on penguin chicks. We saw the discarded remains of several skua meals. Danger can also come from the depths. A couple of times we observed large seals relaxing on ice floes with bright red stains next to them. The saddest sight came one afternoon when we took a Zodiac inflatable boat to shore. A penguin stood forlornly on top of a small ice floe, a leopard seal thrashing the water next to it. We asked our guide if we could rescue the doomed bird. He shook his head. “The water is too rough,” he said. “Too much chance of falling in if anyone tried to step out onto the floe. And you don’t want to be anywhere near an angry half-ton leopard seal that feels his dinner is being taken away from him.” On our way back to the ship, there was no sign of the lone penguin. We had to accept that we couldn’t interfere in the natural course of things.
Greenpeace invites you to celebrate World Penguin Day and also to join the campaign towards its protection. You can learn more by visiting this website: ttp://act.gp/wpd2013.
All images ©Jen Goode
Jim Whiting has written more than 100 titles and edited another 150 or so, with subjects ranging from authors to zoologists and including classical musicians and contemporary pop icons, saints and scientists, emperors and explorers. Many of his books have received glowing reviews.
He's also ventured into a number of classrooms and served as a presenter at writers' conferences, conveying the enthusiasm for writing and for a good story that still animates him. Check out his work here.
MLA 8 Citation
Whiting, Jim. "World Penguin Day." Nonfiction Minute, iNK Think Tank, 25 Apr. 2018, www.nonfictionminute.org/the-nonfiction-minute/World-Penguin-Day. 
Let your imagination listen to the great historical menagerie of presidential pets and you’ll hear the sounds of their feathered friends, like Thomas Jefferson’s mockingbirds, or Calvin Coolidge’s canaries and maybe his pet goose – OR parrots? George and Martha Washington had more than one. When President James Madison and his wife moved into the White House in 1809, so did Dolley Madison’s green and yellow macaw parrot. Dolley was known for her fashionable turbans and often, for Polly, the big bright, squawk-ative bird on her shoulder, helping to greet her guests. And how thrilling, when high-spirited Polly swooped about the high-ceilinged rooms and dive-bombed the company! Later, she was part of the scary, War of 1812 drama, when, in 1814, red-coated British soldiers torched the White House. But at least Dolley made sure they didn’t get their hands on the precious painting of President Washington, or her precious Polly. Just months later, General Andrew Jackson led a rough, frontier army down the Mississippi River to drive the British out of New Orleans. Victorious Andy Jackson, national hero, ended up being President, from 1829 to 1837. That old soldier knew a lot of salty language and so his pet parrot, Poll. We know this because in 1845, he attended ex-President Jackson’s funeral – at least until a shocked human carried poor Poll out of the room. Too much sad excitement had set him to squawking curse words! At the end of the 1800s, President William McKinley amused himself by teaching his yellow-headed Mexican parrot how to whistle “Yankee Doodle.” After Mr. McKinley died of an assassin’s bullet, in 1901, former Vice President Theodore Roosevelt took office. He and First Lady Edith Roosevelt and their six children had LOTS of pets, including a big, beautiful parrot named Eli Yale. Eli was a deep blue hyacinth macaw. There would be other presidential parrots. After all, the big worldwide parrot family has 350 species. Parakeets, for instance: John F. Kennedy’s little girl had two of them. Lyndon B. Johnson’s family kept lovebirds, little candy-colored parrots. But more than a century has passed since a big, big-beaked macaw like Polly or Poll has lived in the White House. Deep blue Eli Yale was the last - so far.
 Andrew Jackson owned an African grey parrot. Wikimedia  Cockatiels, cockatoos, and large flightless kakapos are just a few of the many kinds of parrots. One of the biggest is the gentle, South American hyacinth macaw – from head to tail, more than three feet long! Wikimedia  Teddy Roosevelt with Eli Yale. Wikimedia MLA 8 Citation Harness, Cheryl. "Polly Wants a President." Nonfiction Minute, iNK Think Tank, 13 Mar. 2018, www.nonfictionminute.org/the-nonfiction-minute/ polly-wants-a-president.  |
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