Woody Woodpecker is one of the most famous characters from the golden age of American animation. The colourful anthropomorphic bird with the distinctive cheeky laugh has been appearing on our screens for nearly 80 years - he never loses his appeal!
Created by the Walter Lantz Studio in 1940, he made his first appearance on 25th November that year, with the famous US voice actor, Mel Blanc, providing his chirpy vocals for many years. Woody's creators, Lantz and his colleague Ben Hardaway, were also responsible for Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck.
Woody's career
Woody Woodpecker started life as a garishly-coloured bird with an outrageous laugh and remained a key character of Universal Studios' cartoon schedule until 1972. Over the years, he became a more refined character, with his appearance becoming less outlandish.
Blanc was succeeded by other voice actors, such as Ben Hardaway, Kent Rogers, Danny Webb and Lantz's wife, Grace, over the years. He has been voiced by Eric Bauza, a Canadian voice actor, since 2017. The cartoons regularly appeared on TV in the United States, the UK and other parts of the world.
After Lantz closed down his studio in 1972, the bouncy woodpecker still carried on, as he was revived regularly for special productions, even appearing in the famous 1988 film Who Framed Roger Rabbit. He also featured in The New Woody Woodpecker Show, produced by Fox studios in the 1990s as a Saturday morning kids' cartoon series.
In 2017, the Woody Woodpecker movie brought the red-headed bird into the 21st century with his own live-action and computer-generated film - the woodpecker entered a turf war with a hot-shot lawyer, who wanted to tear down his home and build housing instead.
Woody even has his own motion picture star on the legendary Hollywood Walk of Fame! It can be found at 7000 Hollywood Boulevard. As an icon of the worldwide Universal Studios Theme Parks, he also appears at the Port Aventura Park in Salou, Spain.
Character's origins
Legend has it that Woody was based on a real-life woodpecker, who was pecking on the roof of Walter and Grace Lantz's honeymoon log cabin at June Lake, California, disturbing their peace! The bird actually bored holes in the wooden roof, which wasn't good when heavy rain started to fall!
Does the cartoon Woody share any characteristics with real woodpeckers? Apparently yes! The character was based on the pileated woodpecker species in terms of his colouring and his characteristic laugh, which was said to resemble the woodpecker's call.
However, the creators used artistic licence to develop Woody further, which confused the birding community. Much debate ensued as to whether Woody was based on a real woodpecker, as nobody could decide what species he was. This is hardly surprising, since there are around 200 species of woodpecker across the world.
Real-life woodpeckers
Their pointed beaks are designed for pecking at trees, as they mainly live in woodland and forest habitats. They live between four and 12 years, depending on the species.
Some species of woodpecker are endangered and may even be extinct, including the two largest species, the ivory-billed woodpecker and the imperial woodpecker. The largest woodpecker species, which is confirmed as being still in existence, is the great slaty woodpecker, which is up to 23 inches long and weighs up to 563 grams.
The smallest species is the tiny bar-breasted picule woodpecker, which is only 7.5cm long and weighs between eight and 10 grams. The most common colours for all species of woodpecker are black, red, white and yellow. Some also have green, orange, brown, gold and maroon plumage - brighter colours are typically flashes on the head, back or neck.
Why do they peck at tree trunks?
The most distinctive feature of every species of woodpecker is the strong bill for drumming and drilling on trees in order to extract insects and food with their long tongues. Its tongue can be up to 10cm long and is sticky to extract bugs from the holes in tree bark.
The woodpecker’s brain is encased by muscles and a very solid bone structure, preventing it from moving around and possibly causing injury while the bird is pecking at trunks. It pecks at a very fast rate, up to 20 times per second, so it can produce up to 12,000 pecks per day!
Woodpeckers tend to roost at night inside holes, which become their nest during the breeding season. Their behaviour varies from species to species. Some are antisocial, living a solitary life and becoming aggressive towards other birds, while others live in groups.
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