Drumming behavior of a Japanese pygmy woodpecker in Satoyama: Implications of tree felling and human settlement

The Japanese pygmy woodpecker ( Dendrocopos kizuki) , called “kogera” in Japanese, normally drums on trees. However, a unique behaviour of drumming on metal plates was observed in a Japanese pygmy woodpecker from observations conducted over seven years in the Satoyama landscape of Japan. The woodpecker often preferred to drum on metal plates of telephone poles in order to exploit the specific high-pitched sound reflecting from the metal. Therefore, he concluded that landscape diversity translates into behavioural diversity within species of an organism. Behaviour of the Japanese pygmy woodpecker is poorly studied, especially in the Satoyama areas. Therefore, this study aimed at assessing the influence of human development and economic growth on specific drumming behaviours of the Japanese pygmy woodpecker as well as the effect of landscape diversity on behavioural patterns and species diversity.