Downy Woodpecker
Picoides pubescens
Physical description 3
Downy woodpeckers are smallest woodpeckers in North America. They are 14.5 to 17 cm long and weigh 21 to 28 g. They are mostly black-and-white. Their back is black with white down the center and their wings are black with white spots. Their head is black with a white stripe above and below each eye, and their tail is black with white outer feathers. Their chest and belly are white to grayish.
Downy woodpeckers have whitish tufts at the base of their thick, black bills. Males and females are look the same, except that males have a small red patch at the back of their neck. Young males usually have a red patch on the forehead instead of their neck. Young females do not have any red at all.
Downy woodpeckers are easily confused with hairy woodpeckers (Picoides_villosus). Picoides villosus look very similar to downys, but they are larger. Downy woodpeckers also have a shorter, stubbier bill (shorter than the length of their head) than Picoides villosus. Downy woodpeckers have much quieter calls that hairy woodpeckers, and usually forage on smaller plants. There are eight subspecies.
Habitat 4
In the northern part of their range, downy woodpeckers favor open deciduous forests and woodlands. This includes mixed, secondary-growth forests of oak-hickory or beech-maple-hemlock. They are less common in conifer-dominated forests unless there is a deciduous understory. Downy woodpeckers are also common in cultivated areas such as orchards, and are sometimes found in urban and suburban settings. In the south, they frequent riparian woods or moist, aspen-willow stands.
Food habits 5
Downy woodpeckers are omnivorous. Their primary foods include insects and other arthropods, fruits, seeds, sap and some cambium tissue. Coleoptera, Curculionidae, Formicidae, Hemiptera, Homoptera and Lepidoptera are among the insects eaten. They also consume Homoptera and Araneae. Downy woodpeckers will also eat suet from backyard feeders.
Downy woodpeckers glean insects from the surfaces of trees, shrubs and large weeds, probe into crevices and excavate shallow holes into wood to find food. Males and females within a population often differ in their foraging habits. For example, in one study in Illinois, males spent more time excavating than females, and females probed bark surfaces more than males.
Downy woodpeckers drink water by scooping it up with their bill. They drink from water that collects on horizontal limb surfaces, in epiphytes, puddles, streams, ponds and bird baths.
Sources and Credits
- (c) Jason Means, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-ND), http://www.flickr.com/photos/10996264@N00/3064143839
- (c) Arthur Chapman, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6048/6222817171_da5d317149.jpg
- (c) The Regents of the University of Michigan and its licensors, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://eol.org/data_objects/25066414
- (c) The Regents of the University of Michigan and its licensors, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://eol.org/data_objects/31415727
- (c) The Regents of the University of Michigan and its licensors, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://eol.org/data_objects/25066418
More Info
Range Map
iNaturalist.ca Map
| Animal | Bird |
|---|---|
| Bird | Woodpeckers etc (Piciformes) |
| Color | black, red, white |
