The Downy Woodpecker
Habitat
Downies take home in the United States and southern Canada. They have been recorded
at elevations of up to 9,000 feet. The downies are not deep-forested birds, preferring
deciduous trees. Open woodlands, river groves, orchards, swamps, farmland, and suburban
backyards are all favorite haunts of the downy. Downies will also nest in city parks.
About the only place you won't find them is deserts. The most attractive human dwelling
sites are woodlands broken up by logged patches in a waterside area. Downies also enjoy
open shrubbery with groves of young deciduous trees.
Call(s)
Like the hairy woodpecker, the downy beats a tattoo on a dry resonant tree
branch. This drumming is the downy's song, though they do make some vocal noises. They
have several single-syllable call notes which include tchick, an aggressive social note;
a tick and a tkhirrr, which are alarm notes. There is also a location call, known as a
"whinny", made up of a dozen or more tchicks all strung together.
Scientific Names
The downy woodpecker's scientific name is Picoides pubescens. There are also
six particular downies with six particular scientific names all from different regions of
the United States and southern Canada which I have listed below:
southern downy / Dryobates pubescens
Gairdner's woodpecker / Gairdneri pubescens
Batchelder's woodpecker / Leucurus pubescens
northern downy / Medianus pubescens
Nelson's downy / Nelsoni pubescens
willow woodpecker / Turati pubescens
The downy woodpecker is sometimes reffered to as "little downy."
Behavior Towards Humans
The downy is unquestionably the friendliest woodpecker. A bird lover in
Wisconsin described downies at their feeding station: "The downies will back down to the
suet container on the basswood tree while I sit only a few feet away on the patio. Even
when I walk right up to them, most downies will not fly away, but will simply scoot
around the backside of the tree trunk and peek around to see what I am doing. If I press
them, they will hop up the backside of the tree trunk and then fly to a higher branch.
Food
Besides being friendly, downy woodpeckers are our good friends for another
reason. Most of the insects they eat are considered destructive to man's orchards and
forest products. About 75% of their diet is made up of animal matter gleaned from bark
and crevices where insect larvae and eggs lie hidden. While standing on that unique
tripod of two legs and and a tail, downies hitch up and down tree trunks in search of a
whole laundry list of insect pests. With their special chisel-like bills and horny,
sticky tongues, downies are adept at plucking out great numbers of beetle grubs, insect
cocoons, or batches of insect eggs. They also eat spiders, snails, ants, beetles,
weevils, and caterpillars, with other local insects included. 25% of a downy's diet are
plants made up of the berries of poison ivy, mountain ash, Virginia creeper,
serviceberry, tupelo, and dogwood. Downies also eat the seeds of oaks, apples, hornbeams,
sumac, hickory, and beach. Acorns, beachnuts, and walnuts are the particular favorites.
Dr. John Confer and his students at Ithaca College have studied the downy
woodpecker's use of goldenrod galls as a source of food. They discovered the downy's
little jackhammer is just the tool needed to drill a hole in the side of the one to two
inch goldenrod gall and extract the tiny grub contained inside. In fact, Confer's studies
show that the goldenrod grubs form an important part of the woodpecker's winter diet.
Plumage
Tap, tap, tap! Tap, tap, tap! It is interesting how the downy woodpecker props
itself with those stiff tail feathers while clinging to the bark. The tail relieves the
birds weight. This unique tripod allows the downy to hop up the tree trunk with ease, but
it must back down in the same position, a more akward motion.
The downy woodpecker gets its name of downy because of its soft fine feathers.
The downy, smallest of the woodpecker clan, is not even as big as a robin. It is only
about the size of the of a house sparrow at six inches tall. The downy can be separated
from all other woodpeckers ~ except the hairy ~ by the broad, white strip down its back.
The downy and the hairy are often confused since their markings are quite similar. Both
range across the same territory except the lower southwest where the downy is less often
seen. There are really only two ways to distinguish the downy and the hairy. (1) Look at
the bill of the two birds. The downy will have a much shorter, stubbier bill. (2) The
downy is about 2/3 the size of the hairy. That is another good clue to look for.
The downy is most likely to be the one that you see at the feeder, since the
hairy keeps more to the forest than the downy. However, both will feed at feeders in the
winter months, on suet especially.
The tail, wings, and back of both the downy and hairy woodpeckers have a black
hue intermingled with white spots. A black cap adorns each, below which there is a white
stripe. A small scarlet patch appears on the lower~back of the head. Another black stripe
is below this. The downies have barred outer tail feathers not found on the hairies.
Courtship
Regardless of the elevation, downy woodpeckers begin thinking about nesting
earlier than most birds and several months before they actually nest. After spending the
winter alone, the downies seem to come to life in early February, moving more quickly and
taking more interest in their own species. Their normal tap, tap, tap becomes a quite
different unbroken trrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr, lasting several seconds. The tapping is no
longer simply an effort to find food but a means of communicating to other downies that
this is "my" territory. It is also the first attempt to attract a mate. Both sexes drum.
So early does this drumming begin that it is not unusual to hear it on sub-zero
mornings.
Some ornithologists believe that downy woodpeckers retain the same mate as long
as they live. In this case, all the pair has to do in the spring is to renew their pair
bonds. This fidelity, however, seems to be a result of an attachment to the nesting site
rather than between the birds.
After the drumming has united the pair, the actual courtship begins with a
curious dance or "weaving" action by both sexes. With their neck stretched out and bill
pointed in line with their head and body from side to side balancing on the tips of their
tail. Their entire body is elongated. There is also a lot of flitting and chasing from
one branch to another, and more waving and weaving of head and body. Sometimes with wing
and tail feathers spread. Considerable chattering accompanies these gyrations.
Nesting
Sometime during the courting period the actual selection of a nesting cavity
occurs. The female is usually, though not always, the dominant bird and selects the
nesting site. Ounce selected, both birds dig the hole. Downies will characteristically
place the nesting cavity 3-50 feet above the ground on the underside of an exposed dead
limb. The pair will alternate digging because only one bird at a time can fit into the
cavity. As the hole is cut deeper, the bird working may disappear into the hole and
remain out of sight for 15-20 minutes, appearing only long enough to throw out chips.
(This is unlike chickadees, which will carry their chips away from the nesting site,
downies are not concerned about predators finding chips at the base of the nesting tree.)
Then the pair will change shifts for 15 or 20 minutes while the other bird digs. Though
the female does most of the work, this may vary with individual pairs. Regardless, the
cavity is finished in about a week.
When the cavity is completed, sometime in mid~May, it is shaped much like a
gourd. The entrance is 1 !/4 inches in diameter. It is dug straight about four inches,
then curves down 8-10 more inches and widens to about three inches in diameter. At the
very bottom, the the cavity narrows to about two inches, where a few chips are left to
serve as a nest. It is believed that woodpeckers have been nesting in cavities so long in
evolutionary time that nesting material is no longer used. Chickadees and bluebirds have
been nesting in cavities for a shorter period of time, and still build a nest at the
bottom of the cavity as they did when they built their nests in the open.
The eggs, too, reflect this. Species that have been using cavities for many
thousands of years, like the woodpeckers, lay pure white eggs. No protective coloration
is needed when they are hidden in a cavity. Bluebirds and chickadees, on the other hand,
still lay eggs with some protective coloration on them~specks in the case of chickadees
and pale blue in bluebirds' eggs.
Downy woodpeckers lay four to five pure white eggs, which are incubated by both
parents through the 12 days required for hatching. They take turns during the daylight
hours; the male incubates at night.
The downy, like other woodpeckers, will seldom use the same nesting cavity year
after year. Instead, the site is taken over the next year by chickadees, titmice, tree
swallows, wrens, and sometimes bluebirds. This forces the downy couple to drill another
nesting cavity each year.
Young Downies
When the young hatch, they are naked, blind, helpless, red-colored, and quite
unattractive. During the first few critical days after hatching, the adults take turns in
the cavity, one brooding the young while the other bird is gathering food. The male
usually broods at night.
Downies swallow and regurgitate their food to the young for only four to five
days. After that they carry insects and other bugs, primarily spiders, ants, and moths,
to the youngsters in their bills. The older the chicks get, the more food the adults must
provide. It isn't long before the young can be heard chippering in the cavity and both
parents are feeding from daylight until dark. At times they are feeding as often as ounce
a minute!
A few days after hatching, feathers start to grow on the young, and by the time
they are 14 days old, their tail feathers are long enough to support their weight. It is
then that they make their first appearance at the cavity entrance. For the next week, the
youngsters spend a great deal of their time taking turns at the cavity entrance, heads
out, chippering loudly, awaiting the next meal. At 21 to 24 days, the young are ready to
leave the cavity on their first flight. A New York observer gave a good acount of a downy
family's last few days in the cavity: "The young chattered most of the time during the
last two days of nest life. One at a time they looked out a great deal at the strange
outer world. They left the nest on on the eleventh of June. The last two, a male and a
female, left during the afternoon, each after being fed at the entrance and seeing the
parent fly away. The young male flew from the nesting hole straight to a tree 60 feet
away. His sister quickly followed, lighting on the trunk
of the same tree and following her parent up the bole in the hitching manner of their
kind as though she had been practicing this vertical locomotion all of her life."
The observer could distinguish male youngsters from female because they already
had a slightly different appearance. Like their adult counterparts, the young males have
red on their heads and the females do not. The red on the head of the juvenile male is
not a small spot on the back of the head as in the adult male, but a much larger area of
red and pink on the whole crown. The youngsters are also somewhat fluffy or "downy"
looking. The juvenile female looks like the juvenile male, without the red crown.
This juvenile plumage will be worn but a short time, for all downies, young and
adult, molt into winter plumage in September.
Ounce the young have fledged, the parents divide the brood and only take care of
their charges. The male will usually take one or two of the young, while the female takes
the others. According to study, young downies become independent at the age of 41 days.
Many people have seen youngsters on suet feeders in late summer with no apparent adult
escort, nor any interest in other downies in the area. In fact, the adults will drive off
the youngsters at the suet feeders.
Downy woodpeckers have only one brood a year in the north, but sometimes two in
the south.
Winter for a Downy
By September the downy woodpecker family has broken up, the young of the year
look like adults, and all become solitary and quiet.
As cold weather approaches, the first order of business is to locate a winter
roosting cavity. Apparently, downies do not use their nesting cavities as winter roosts;
most birds drill fresh roosts in anticipation of the long winter ahead.
These preparations, however, are not made at the fast pace of most other birds
in autumn. The species that must migrate to warmer climates seem to be restless and in
such a hurry about everything. But not the downy. It remains calm in the midst of the
hustle. Such is the personality of the permanent resident. Despite this, there are some
studies which indicate that some downies, particularily females, do leave the breeding
territory; others don't. The reasons for these variations are not clear.
The down's winter is spent quietly and alone, searching the doormant woodland
for food. The pace of life has slowed, and often its tap, tap, tap is the only sound to
be heard above the wind in the trees. The downy is well equiped to survive the coldest
weather. It even takes playful baths in the snow piled high on branches. A woman in
Canada described one such incident: "This morning a female downy flew to a horizantal
branch and proceeded vigorously to bathe in the loose snow lying there. Like a robin in a
puddle. Mrs. Downy ducked her head, ruffled her feathers and fluttered her wings,
throwing some of the snow over her back and scattering the rest to the winds."
The downy woodpecker's winter food is not unlimited. The insects apon which it
survives stopped multiplying when cold weather arrived. As time passes, the bird must
search more and more diligently to feed itself. It gets some help from the bands of
chickadees, titmice, and nuthatches with whom it shares the winter woods. Downies will
often stay loosely associated with these species as they cruise the woodlands in search
of hidden morsels. But the downy is tied somewhat to the area near its roosting hole,
since it will return to it every evening at sunset. Therefore, the feeding areas
surrounding the roosting cavity become a downy's individual winter feeding territory,
which it will defend against other downies.
Backyard feeding stations are the exception. For some unexplained reason,
feeding stations are a "common ground" for all birds in all seasons. Usually (in the
right conditions) there will be between six and ten downies at suet feeders at various
times every day during the winter. There will be fewer during the summer. That is
probably because there is more natural food in the summer and breeding territories are
more rigorously defended. Regardless, the downies take turns at feeders, abiding by some
kind of truce at the suet, though there are often fights over who feeds first.
Territorial Disputes
When two males or two females come face to face over a territorial dispute,
they spread their wings, raise their crests and assume a challenging attitude and scold
each other. Most of this is bluff, of course, for they soon settle down, unless one or
the other advances toward a female.
Flight
Like the other members of the woodpecker clan, the downy has a distinct
undulatin flight that is most evident when it crosses open areas or swoops through
woodlands. The dips are not as deep as those of a goldflinch, but as ornithologist Arthur
Cleveland Bent said, "It gives the effect of a ship pitching slightly in a heavy sea. A
few strokes carry the bird up to the crest of the wave~ the wings clapping close to the
side of the body~ then, at the crest, with the wings shut, the bird tilts slightly
foward, and slides down into the next trough."
Enemies & Camouflage
Though no songbird is totally safe from predators, not many downy woodpeckers
fall prey to hawks, owls, and other winged hunters. When attacked, downies are quite
adroit at dodging raptors by flitting around the branches of their natural habitat. They
can also flatten themselves against the bark of a tree trunk and become almost invisible
to any pursuer. Maurice Thompson described a downy's defense against a goshawk: "The
downy darted through the foliage and flattened itself against a large oak bough, where it
remained motionless as the bark itself. The hawk lit on the same bough within a few feet
of its intended victim, and remained sitting there for a few moments, searching in vain.
The black and white feathers of the downy blended perfectly with the bark and lichen on
the tree."
Other enemies, strangely, include house wrens, which have been known to wait
until downies have completed work on their nesting cavaties before appropriating the site
for themselves. Unbelievable as it may sound, the house wren can be aggressive enough to
attack a pair of downies and drive them from their own nesting site to procure the cavity
for its own.
Squirrels, particularly red squirrels, will destroy the eggs and young of downy
woodpeckers.
Attracting Downies
Food, cover, and water are the three basic needs of all wildlife and downy
woodpeckers are no exception. Food and cover definitely take priority over water, as
downies seldom drink at birdbaths.
Mature trees in an open woodland are the preferred habitat, but any kind of
natural cover is better than none at all. A mixed stand of oaks, basswood, maples, and
willows will suit downies perfectly.
Food is simple. Downy woodpeckers love beef suet. Be sure that you get real
beef suet at the butcher shop. So often a butcher will give or sell you beef fat, which
downies will reluctantly eat in the winter. They prefer real suet, which is the hard,
white, opaque fat surrounding the beef kidney. Regular beef fat has a greasier,
translucent appearance. It will also decompose in warm weather and attract flies. Suet
will not. That is why beef suet is reccomended all year long. It is every bit as
successful with downies in summer as winter. Plus, the suet feeder is the place where
most of the baby downies are first seen by humans. They are so cute with their red caps
and roly-poly appearance. At first a parent bird feeds the youngster suet. Then it tries
to get the youngster to feed itself. All that free entertainment is yours to enjoy if you
put up a suet feeder.
Other feeding station foods that downies will eat include peanut butter (it's
a fallacy that peanut butter sticks in the throats of birds), doughnuts, nutmeats,
sunflower seeds, corn bread, and cracked corn kernels. But beef suet is by far the most
popular with all the woodpeckers.
Will a downy woodpecker nest in a bird house? Though most books on attracting
birds or building birdhouses give dimensions for downy woodpecker houses, there does not
appear to be any record of a downy nesting in a man-made house. However, there are
records of downies using birdhouses as winter roosts.
Special Adaptations
The downy has many adaptations, ranging from the tail feathers to the tongue.
First of all the downy's toes are different than most other birds. Instead of
having three toes in the front and one in the back, the downy has two toes in the front
and two in back. This arrangement makes the downy's unique tripod of two feet and stiff
tail feathers more effective. The toes have also adapted another way. The outer hind toe
is longer than the rest of the toes to keep it from swaying.
The downy's tail is also special. Unlike most birds the downy's tail feathers
are long and stiff. This helps balance the birds weight as it stands vertically on a
tree.
Another adaptation of the downy woodpecker is their unusual bill. It is not
pointed like most other birds, but it is chisel-shaped. A chisel- shaped bill makes the
downy's work of carving a nesting and roosting cavity easier. The bill also helps the
downy chip the wood around the insects buried in a tree. The tongue is also worth noting.
At twice the size of the downy's head, the tongue easily spears small morsels with a
horny tip of recurved barbs.
Yes, even the skull has changed to fit the downy's needs. The skull of the
downy is stronger and thicker than most other birds. So logically it is also heavier.
This extra weight makes the little jackhammer more effective.
But most amazing is not how the downy has adapted, it is its skill to adapt.
When European settlers invaded the downy woodpeckers' territory 200 to 300 years ago, the
birds did not retreat as did many of our native species. Instead, they accepted as a home
the orchards and shade trees with which man replaced the forests. Our early
ornithologists were in agreement when they characterized the bird. Audubon remarked in
1842 that it "is perhaps not surpassed by any of its tribe in hardiness, industry, or
vivacity."
Alexander Wilson said ten years earlier that "the principal characteristics of
this little bird are diligence, familiarity, perseverance," and spoke of a pair of
downies working at their nest "with the most indefatigable diligence."
And so it is today. The downy woodpecker remains unspoiled and unconcerned by
the threats of man. It just quietly flits around the backyard woodland, tap, tap, tap-ing
its way through life.
The Downy Woodpecker
Habitat
Downies take home in the United States and southern Canada. They have been recorded
at elevations of up to 9,000 feet. The downies are not deep-forested birds, preferring
deciduous trees. Open woodlands, river groves, orchards, swamps, farmland, and suburban
backyards are all favorite haunts of the downy. Downies will also nest in city parks.
About the only place you won't find them is deserts. The most attractive human dwelling
sites are woodlands broken up by logged patches in a waterside area. Downies also enjoy
open shrubbery with groves of young deciduous trees.
Call(s)
Like the hairy woodpecker, the downy beats a tattoo on a dry resonant tree
branch. This drumming is the downy's song, though they do make some vocal noises. They
have several single-syllable call notes which include tchick, an aggressive social note;
a tick and a tkhirrr, which are alarm notes. There is also a location call, known as a
"whinny", made up of a dozen or more tchicks all strung together.
Scientific Names
The downy woodpecker's scientific name is Picoides pubescens. There are also
six particular downies with six particular scientific names all from different regions of
the United States and southern Canada which I have listed below:
southern downy / Dryobates pubescens
Gairdner's woodpecker / Gairdneri pubescens
Batchelder's woodpecker / Leucurus pubescens
northern downy / Medianus pubescens
Nelson's downy / Nelsoni pubescens
willow woodpecker / Turati pubescens
The downy woodpecker is sometimes reffered to as "little downy."
Behavior Towards Humans
The downy is unquestionably the friendliest woodpecker. A bird lover in
Wisconsin described downies at their feeding station: "The downies will back down to the
suet container on the basswood tree while I sit only a few feet away on the patio. Even
when I walk right up to them, most downies will not fly away, but will simply scoot
around the backside of the tree trunk and peek around to see what I am doing. If I press
them, they will hop up the backside of the tree trunk and then fly to a higher branch.
Food
Besides being friendly, downy woodpeckers are our good friends for another
reason. Most of the insects they eat are considered destructive to man's orchards and
forest products. About 75% of their diet is made up of animal matter gleaned from bark
and crevices where insect larvae and eggs lie hidden. While standing on that unique
tripod of two legs and and a tail, downies hitch up and down tree trunks in search of a
whole laundry list of insect pests. With their special chisel-like bills and horny,
sticky tongues, downies are adept at plucking out great numbers of beetle grubs, insect
cocoons, or batches of insect eggs. They also eat spiders, snails, ants, beetles,
weevils, and caterpillars, with other local insects included. 25% of a downy's diet are
plants made up of the berries of poison ivy, mountain ash, Virginia creeper,
serviceberry, tupelo, and dogwood. Downies also eat the seeds of oaks, apples, hornbeams,
sumac, hickory, and beach. Acorns, beachnuts, and walnuts are the particular favorites.
Dr. John Confer and his students at Ithaca College have studied the downy
woodpecker's use of goldenrod galls as a source of food. They discovered the downy's
little jackhammer is just the tool needed to drill a hole in the side of the one to two
inch goldenrod gall and extract the tiny grub contained inside. In fact, Confer's studies
show that the goldenrod grubs form an important part of the woodpecker's winter diet.
Plumage
Tap, tap, tap! Tap, tap, tap! It is interesting how the downy woodpecker props
itself with those stiff tail feathers while clinging to the bark. The tail relieves the
birds weight. This unique tripod allows the downy to hop up the tree trunk with ease, but
it must back down in the same position, a more akward motion.
The downy woodpecker gets its name of downy because of its soft fine feathers.
The downy, smallest of the woodpecker clan, is not even as big as a robin. It is only
about the size of the of a house sparrow at six inches tall. The downy can be separated
from all other woodpeckers ~ except the hairy ~ by the broad, white strip down its back.
The downy and the hairy are often confused since their markings are quite similar. Both
range across the same territory except the lower southwest where the downy is less often
seen. There are really only two ways to distinguish the downy and the hairy. (1) Look at
the bill of the two birds. The downy will have a much shorter, stubbier bill. (2) The
downy is about 2/3 the size of the hairy. That is another good clue to look for.
The downy is most likely to be the one that you see at the feeder, since the
hairy keeps more to the forest than the downy. However, both will feed at feeders in the
winter months, on suet especially.
The tail, wings, and back of both the downy and hairy woodpeckers have a black
hue intermingled with white spots. A black cap adorns each, below which there is a white
stripe. A small scarlet patch appears on the lower~back of the head. Another black stripe
is below this. The downies have barred outer tail feathers not found on the hairies.
Courtship
Regardless of the elevation, downy woodpeckers begin thinking about nesting
earlier than most birds and several months before they actually nest. After spending the
winter alone, the downies seem to come to life in early February, moving more quickly and
taking more interest in their own species. Their normal tap, tap, tap becomes a quite
different unbroken trrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr, lasting several seconds. The tapping is no
longer simply an effort to find food but a means of communicating to other downies that
this is "my" territory. It is also the first attempt to attract a mate. Both sexes drum.
So early does this drumming begin that it is not unusual to hear it on sub-zero
mornings.
Some ornithologists believe that downy woodpeckers retain the same mate as long
as they live. In this case, all the pair has to do in the spring is to renew their pair
bonds. This fidelity, however, seems to be a result of an attachment to the nesting site
rather than between the birds.
After the drumming has united the pair, the actual courtship begins with a
curious dance or "weaving" action by both sexes. With their neck stretched out and bill
pointed in line with their head and body from side to side balancing on the tips of their
tail. Their entire body is elongated. There is also a lot of flitting and chasing from
one branch to another, and more waving and weaving of head and body. Sometimes with wing
and tail feathers spread. Considerable chattering accompanies these gyrations.
Nesting
Sometime during the courting period the actual selection of a nesting cavity
occurs. The female is usually, though not always, the dominant bird and selects the
nesting site. Ounce selected, both birds dig the hole. Downies will characteristically
place the nesting cavity 3-50 feet above the ground on the underside of an exposed dead
limb. The pair will alternate digging because only one bird at a time can fit into the
cavity. As the hole is cut deeper, the bird working may disappear into the hole and
remain out of sight for 15-20 minutes, appearing only long enough to throw out chips.
(This is unlike chickadees, which will carry their chips away from the nesting site,
downies are not concerned about predators finding chips at the base of the nesting tree.)
Then the pair will change shifts for 15 or
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