The red-cockaded woodpecker is an unusual bird. An eight- or nine-inch ball of black and white feathers, it’s found in East Texas forests with an open understory, carving its nest cavities in living pine trees and drilling little holes around the openings, which drip sticky sap to deter predators, such as rat snakes. The males have a tiny, nearly invisible red streak, or cockade, on the upper border of the cheek. Unlike most woodpeckers, mated pairs of this species don’t raise their offspring alone. “Typically, the young of the previous year, most often the males, will stick around for a few years and help their parents raise their younger siblings,” says Tania Homayoun, an ornithologist with Texas Parks and Wildlife. “They’ll stick fairly close to…
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