woodpecker
Americannoun
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woodpeckers
plural
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of woodpecker
Explanation
Woodpeckers are birds that use their sharp bills to drill holes in trees so they can forage for insects. While woodpeckers are occasionally considered pests, they actually protect trees against infestation.. There are over 200 species of woodpecker, most of which live in wooded areas. They vary in appearance, but many have black and white feathers and a bright red cap. One thing all woodpeckers have in common is the ability to peck holes in a tree trunk hard enough so they can reach the tasty insects and grubs inside with their long tongues. If you hear a faint tapping as you walk through the forest, it's probably a woodpecker!
Vocabulary lists containing woodpecker
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
As a small-scale songbird rehabilitator I am not equipped, for instance, to take on a pileated woodpecker, which can smash its way out of any enclosure not made of steel.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 7, 2025
But also be on the lookout for a pesky woodpecker.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 23, 2024
In warm weather, it’s alive with nuthatches, chickadees, sometimes a downy woodpecker.
From Seattle Times ● May 24, 2024
The authors point out that New Caledonian crows, Goffin's cockatoos, woodpecker finches, bearded capuchins, bottlenose dolphins, orangutans, gorillas and sea otters can also use tools flexibly.
From Salon ● May 13, 2024
But it drew me to her to think she loved water rocks and woodpecker feathers, that she had a single picture of her mother just like I did.
From "The Secret Life of Bees" by Sue Monk Kidd
The residents watched the same deer, coyotes and woodpeckers and played tennis and swam with the same dramatic backdrop of the Santa Monica Mountains.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 11, 2026
Dozens of animals rely on them to survive, from ladder-backed woodpeckers who nest in their trunks to desert night lizards who sleep and forage beneath their fallen boughs.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 16, 2025
She says she now never sees less common species like treecreepers, nuthatches and green woodpeckers in her garden.
From BBC ● Jan. 25, 2024
Snag-reliant woodpeckers are of particular importance among those species, acting as ecosystem engineers through their foraging and nesting activities.
From Science Daily ● Jan. 23, 2024
Even the woodpeckers that had been tapping around me all morning were silent.
From "My Side of the Mountain" by Jean Craighead George
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
