While watching birds at Ixpanpajul, Guatemala on 13th February 2024, a tour participant pointed me to a male Chestnut-colored Woodpecker / Kastanienrückenspecht (Celeus castaneus) on a tree trunk, just a few meters in front of us and less than two meters above the ground. The bird was dead and attached to the tree trunk solely by it’s bill tip which was covered in resin over about a fifth of its length. While it’s impossible to say what exactly happened, it certainly looked as if the bird got glued to the tree by the tree gum on its bill and died from starvation. It’s wings were hanging, feet dangling in the air. The left eye was swollen and looked injured. The carcass had already lost a lot of weight and felt light, but wasn’t completely dry yet. I estimated that the bird had been dead for less than a week. I removed the carcass with two fingers – hard to imagine that a large, flapping bird wouldn’t have been able to free itself when only attached to the tree by the tip of its bill. Maybe it was weakened from its injury?
