Woodpeckers represent one of the most specialized bird families in the world, and North America’s woodpeckers play critical roles in our continent’s forests and woodlands. In fact, nowhere else on Earth are woodpeckers such important characters in woodland ecology. Join naturalist and woodpecker specialist, Steve Shunk, for an exciting journey into the lives and times of Arizona’s amazing woodpeckers. Steve will share the secrets of woodpecker anatomy, and he will translate anatomical adaptation into the fascinating behaviors we love to watch among our woodland carpenters. Each species’ anatomy perfectly suits its unique lifestyle, with different woodpeckers possessing adaptations for aerial acrobatics; for drilling sap wells; for extracting wood-boring beetle larvae; or for extracting ants from underground burrows. He will demystify woodpecker feeding, courtship, and nesting behaviors, including the reasons why woodpeckers pound on our houses and what we can do about it. Steve will also reveal the keystone ecological roles played by our local woodpeckers, and he will send you home with a mission: Prepare to be entertained, educated, and inspired as ambassadors for woodpecker conservation. Sponsored by Naturalist Journeys. (Limit of 100)