The number of “rainbirds” around the world is legion. Rarely, though, is the explanation of the behavior as detailed as in this legend from southwestern France:
When the good Lord was creating the oceans, the rivers, and the springs, he asked the birds of the skies to help with the digging. They all set to work except for the green woodpecker, which mutinied and refused to budge. Once the task had been completed by the other birds, the good Lord took care to announce that the green woodpecker, having refused to help dig in the soil with his bill, would have to dig in wood to all eternity, and that not having contributed to excavating all of the earth’s bodies of water, the woodpecker would never drink any water but rain, which it would have to catch as it fell. And this is why the miserable bird never ceases to summon the clouds with its call, pluie-pluie, and why it always perches vertically, so that it can open its bill like a funnel to collect the raindrops that fall from the clouds.
Now you know. And you can test the theory with me this coming spring on either of my Birds and Art Tours to France.
