I had a lot of fun photographing this woodpecker spat in January. Two male hairy woodpeckers were debating who was going to go to a suet feeder. There are five suet feeders on the bird tree, so they kept themselves quite busy. They would fly at each other but neither was actually touched by the other. They kept this up for so long that I stopped watching them after thirty minutes. There were so many good shots, that I decided to give you a slide show.
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Downy Woodpecker (Picoides pubescens)
A few years ago, I vowed to never try to identify downy and hairy woodpeckers again. Each identification I made was wrong and I couldn't seem to remember which was the smaller woodpecker. For some reason, that changed this winter. I created a mnemonic that helped me remember which bird was which. The constant repetition of the mnemonic finally created automatic knowledge. I look at a woodpecker and now I know which it is!
The downy woodpecker is above. It is the smaller bird, which you can see by its relative size as it perches on the suet feeder. The smaller bird also has the shorter beak. Also, look at the tail feathers. There are bands of black there with the rufous feathers filling some bands.
"Smaller" and "shorter" are meaningless without comparison, so we see in the photo below the hairy woodpecker which is larger and has a longer bill. It has no bands on its tail, only the rufous feathers. (However, I have read that some hairy woodpeckers in the northwest of the US have bands of black.)
Hairy Woodpecker (Picoides villosus)
I have observed that hairy woodpeckers seem to be more aggressive than the downy. Downy woodpeckers have their spats, but the hairy woodpeckers attack each other more often and more violently (but I have not seen any injuries). I also think, but am not certain, that the hairy woodpecker gaze has an intensity, not seen by me in the downy, that you see in this photo. These are my observations and I have not verified then with any research.
What was my mnemonic? D is for downy and H is for hairy. D comes before H in the alphabet, as smaller/shorter comes before larger/longer (on an imaginary continuum). Therefore, the downy is smaller and has the shorter bill. If you have the same problem identifying these birds that I had, I hope this helps! Have fun watching the woodpeckers! I have to go to Flickr now and sort out my downy and hairy woodpeckers!
| Flickr: My Downy Woodpecker Set Flickr: My Hairy Woodpecker Set Flickr:: My messed up Woodpecker Set |
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The Angry Hairy Woodpecker
Click the photo to go to the e-card.
The Yankee Magazine web site has free e-cards that you can send to anybody you know as a birthday card, get well card, or simply a post card. You can type your own message on it. All you need is your recipient's e-mail address.
I have begun submitting photographs to this e-card gallery. I have two up now and will be regularly submitting more. There are hundreds to choose from in all sorts of categories. I urge you to use this free and beautiful resource for your e-cards (and e-mails!). Please choose my photos for your cards. I get no money at all if you use mine, but I get recognition. Sort of. And it will make me proud!
With so many e-cards to choose from on the site, I have linked the woodpecker photo above directly to the e-card. Simply click the photo and the e-card will open in a new window.
The male hairy woodpecker in the photo is angry. He is trying to keep another male hairy woodpecker off of all of the suet feeders on our bird tree. The two males were aggressively strutting up and down the tree with their necks extended and their heads pointed to the sky. You can see more photos of these two at my post Quarreling Hairy Woodpeckers.
I will have my e-card links on the sidebar as soon as I have enough to justify coding a widget for that purpose.
And thank you for using my e-cards!
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This tiny male hairy woodpecker (above) and female (below) are the smallest I have seen. They "look young," as if they are youngsters. But it was still snowing this weekend, so I don't know how they could be juvenile birds. The female was resting with her belly on the branch and her chin on another branch. When the male came, she chased him up and down the tree until he flew off.
The Woodpecker
All photos will open in a new window when clicked.
Birds at the feeders in today's snowstorm
Northern Junco
Hairy Woodpecker (male)
Black-capped Chickadee
I woke up the other morning to find a Google blog link to Silk Screen Portal, a lovely blog I read occasionally. Michael had used one of my hairy woodpecker photos and created a wonderful effect. I love it. I took it and made an avatar, which you see in my profile now. The original photo is below. I used the photo as part of the Woodpecker Finding Squirrel Nuts collage.
Thank you, Michael, for such a lovely gift.
Click photo to view it full-size in a new window.
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