Pink-Cockaded Pygmy Woodpecker

The pink-cockaded pygmy woodpecker is about the size of a man's thumb, and feeds almost exclusively on the seeds and bitter, milky sap of Papaver somniforum, the opium poppy. Since this sap is pretty much pure crude opium, this tiny woodpecker is most notable for its dopey grin and dilated pupils.

Many pink-cockadeds are brought unneccessarily to wildlife rehabilitators by well-meaning individuals who find the small birds lying in an untidy heap at the base of the poppy, and assume they've been injured. Not so! They've simply gotten too intoxicated and fallen off the flower. If you are in doubt as to whether the woodpecker is injured or not, poke it gently with your finger or a small stick. If the woodpecker snores, or begins giggling uncontrollably, it's fine. Leave it alone, or if neccessary, offer to call it a cab. After the poppy season is over for the year, pink-cockadeds will lurk around the yard looking hung-over. Leave out a shallow dish of black coffee for several weeks to allow this majestic species time to detox, and then they will wing their way south to Tijuana, there to disport themselves until the poppies bloom again.
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Just a quick and silly watercolor/colored pencil/acrylic piece, 10 x 14. People ask where I get my ideas. This one was easy. I was looking at websites about garden plants, and was looking at some lovely poppies, and then the woodpeckers outside started drumming on the siding, and the rest, as they say, is history...

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