Woodpecker Bones

Several dozen woodpecker species exist throughout the world, and the remains of two unique species have been found at Jamestown. Arm bones, leg bones, and cranial remains of at least one Pileated woodpecker (Dryocopus pileatus) and one red-bellied woodpecker (Melanerpes carolinus) were uncovered during the excavation of Pit 5. It is unclear why these remains are here; though they could have been a food source, it is more likely that these woodpeckers were deposited for a different reason.

In the mid-to-late 1500s, woodpeckers were considered “vermin” under the English Preservation of Grain Act of 1532. This law was enacted in an attempt to ease food shortages and halt the spread of disease by making it mandatory for English citizens to kill any animal officially identified as vermin. In addition to woodpeckers, which were thought to contribute to crop destruction, other animals including martens, hedgehogs, kingfishers, foxes, badgers, and ravens were also designated by the Act as vermin to be exterminated. Given this relatively recent regulation and English perception of woodpeckers, it’s possible that woodpeckers spotted at Jamestown were also killed as a means to prevent disease and crop destruction.

Though woodpeckers are never mentioned by name in the colonists’ early narratives, John Smith regularly describes the diversity of birds present in the region, stating, “There are woosels [alternate term for blackbird] or blackbirds with red shoulders, thrushes, and diverse sorts of small birds, some red, some blew, scarce so bigge as a [wren], but few in [summer].” George Percy also comments on this, writing, “…Fowles and Birds of divers and sundrie colours.”

As their name implies, woodpeckers are most known for their unique foraging ability. Using their straight, pointed bill, woodpeckers drill into trees in order to reach insects. As they peck away, woodpeckers use their tongues for shock absorption, wrapping them around their brain and keeping the skull and spine in place. After they bore deep enough to access the bugs they’re hoping to eat, woodpeckers use their especially long tongues to fish them out. Their beak is also a form of communication, used to tap rapidly and repeatedly in a unique pattern. Both pileated and red-bellied woodpeckers can be found at Jamestown today, along with the roundly built and shorter billed downy woodpecker (Picoides pubescens), the smallest woodpecker species in the United States.