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scienceMar 4, 20262:00

One Smart Woodpecker

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The red‑cockaded woodpecker uses pine resin to protect its nest. Its planning avoids fire and predators and reflects a caring Creator.

Image: Picoides borealis (Red-cockaded Woodpecker) Mississippi, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Southeast Region, CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons.

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One Smart Woodpecker

Today's Creation Moment

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Full transcript

Today's Creation MomentOne Smart Woodpecker. Machine-transcribed; use the interactive transcript above to jump the player to any line.

How does a woodpecker outsmart a snake? Find out next on today's Creation Moment. And now here is our Creation Moments host, Ian Taylor. The red coca-edied woodpecker is one smart bird. While most woodpeckers choose a dead tree, our smart woodpecker chooses a living pine tree of about 60 years old. It is at about this age that a fungus infection begins to rot away the heartwood of the tree. Over months, or even sometimes years, that woodpecker works his way through the living tissue to the hollow centre where he will build his nest. The nest cavity is always above the level of shrub growth in order to provide a safe haven from any forest fires. In addition, the grey rat snake and natural enemy of the woodpecker can also climb pine trees, but the snake does not like the gummy resin from the pine tree. In fact, snakes that encounter the resin will begin to rye than fall

to the ground. So to make sure that its home is absolutely safe, the woodpecker drills a series of holes around the access hole leading to his nest. The holes are kept open so that the nest hole is always protected by the resin. The red coca-edied woodpecker carefully selects a site for its home in order to be safe from both fire and a natural predator, using the natural chemistry of the tree to aid its survival. Obviously, this intelligence was given to the woodpecker by the creator since trial and error cannot explain such careful planning. To get our daily creation devotionals, newsletters, evidence videos and more conveniently delivered to your email inbox, join our free emailing list by visiting us at creationmoments.com or call us toll free at 1-842 Bible. That's 1-800-422-4253.

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