Hairy Woodpecker and Young - 2009

I've always felt that Hairy Woodpeckers were something special. Whereas the almost identical looking Downy Woodpecker was cute and ubiquitous, their larger cousins seemed wild and rare. I felt really lucky last year when an adult male would stop at my peanut-pieces feeder. He came in the winter and by spring was gone.

(I don't have the best camera for photographing birds, and I was shooting through a window screen, but these pictures do serve to illustrate my story.

Adult male - note red patch on back of head and the long powerful bill. Downy Woodpeckers look about the same, but their bills are very much smaller in proportion to their head.

This winter he started showing up more regularly and before long a female was coming, too. However, she always fed at the peanut-dough (suet) feeder and the male always at the peanut-pieces feeder (not pictured.) They never changed feeders, curiously enough. I made sure I kept both feeders supplied this spring and had hopes I could entice the birds to stick around longer this season.

On June 6th I noticed the male at the peanut-dough feeder and thought that was strange for him. I also heard the woodpecker "rattle" call which seemed to coming from another bird. At first I thought this was the female, but this bird had an orange-red patch on the top of its head. The female has no color on her head. Then I saw the adult male feeding this other bird and it became apparent that this other bird was a fledgling just out of the nest.

Juvenile with orange-red patch on top of head.

Profile of juvenile - note location of orange-red patch and smaller bill

Over the course of the next hour or so I also saw the adult female feeding a juvenile. I thought this was very cool that the couple were able to raise a young'un. The next day I saw two juveniles and realized they had two young and that made me even happier.

Here you can see the adult male and both juveniles if you look carefully.

The Hairy Woodpecker is a very attractive bird with bold markings. The female is slightly smaller than the male and her bill is not as long and powerful-looking. I love the white on black markings along the folded wing - it reminds me of some of the patterns on Pueblo Indian pottery and causes me to wonder if the bird is the inspiration for the designs.

You can learn more about these fabulous birds at Cornell's All About Birds site, including recordings of their calls, peeks, rattles, and drumming.
http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Hairy_Woodpecker/id

Side note: the unusual looking tree on which my feeder hangs is actually a dead apple tree which fell about two years ago. The birds loved the tree and it was conveniently situated outside my home/office window. I couldn't live without the tree, so sawed off and saved the largest section. I dug a hole and "planted" the snag after painting the portion of the trunk which would be in the ground with roofing tar to help preserve it. You can see some of the branches are screwed and tied onto the tree. It stands about 15 feet tall and I used the Egyptian obelisk erection technique to raise it single-handed.