Cardinal Woodpecker

We heard the sound of knocking, whilst walking under the trees at the West Coast National Park. On following where the sound was coming from, up in the trees, we came across these two Cardinal Woodpeckers (Kardinaalspeg, Afrikaans name) busy carving out holes in the tree trunk.

The Cardinal Woodpecker is a common resident across most of Southern Africa. They excavate nest holes into the tree.

Woodpeckers have barbed tongues which they use to extricate grubs and larvae of insects and beetles from under the bark.

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Purple Seedpod

These are the purple seedpods of the Lowveld Cluster Leaf Tree (Terminalia prunioides). They grow everywhere in the Kruger National Park, the…
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