Explore January: Downy Two that seek out woodland habitats with sugar maple trees are the yellow-bellied sapsucker and the . The sapsucker is a woodpecker that drills holes in maple trees to harvest their sweet sap. The downy woodpecker takes advantage of the sapsuckers’ efforts by using the predrilled holes to drink the sap. It’s a pretty sweet deal for the downy woodpecker.

The downy woodpecker ( pubescens) is the smallest and most widespread woodpecker in North America. The black and white mottled is a mere six inches long with a feather pattern that look like a mini checkerboard. There’s a stripe of white fluffy feathers that runs right down the center of the back. This stripe of fluff is what gives the bird its “downy” name. The tail is black in the center and white with black flecks on the outer edges. The Female downy woodpecker Male downy woodpecker woodpecker’s head has alternating black and white stripes that radiate out from the little pointy beak. Its only splotch of color is the small red patch of feathers on the back of the head of the male. The female does not have the red spot.

Downy are year-round residents in just about any open woodland, park, backyard, and weedy place that has some trees or shrubs. They are acrobatic, quick-moving foragers that can be observed gleaning the bark on slender branches of saplings or probing the crevices of the thick outer bark of mature trees. Because of their light weight, they can easily balance on slender weeds as they peck away at stems or plant galls in search of . They are just as comfortable excavating dead limbs for beetle larva as they are at stealing suet and seeds from backyard feeders. They can occasionally be seen foraging on the ground for insects or under feeders for seeds. Downy woodpeckers are opportunistic feeders that eat small fruits like blueberries and will occasionally drink sugar water from hummingbird or oriole feeders.

As for drinking tree sap, from the late 1700s to the early 1900s, a major controversy raged among ornithologists about the cause of rings of holes found on sugar maple and other trees. Some insisted these rings were the sole work of sapsuckers (Sphyrapicus spp.) while others believed that the downy woodpecker was also responsible. Eventually researchers figured out that the downies will drink sap but almost always from holes predrilled by sapsuckers. Downy woodpeckers do drill into diseased maple trees, but usually in search of insects. They make holes that are much smaller, less rectangular, and less deep than those of sapsuckers – downy

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holes do not penetrate the xylem layer. Both males and females drink the sap from holes excavated by sapsuckers or tree wounds, but they only do this in late winter and early spring when sap is readily flowing in trees.

Downy woodpeckers are opportunistic feeders, and their diets vary seasonally based on availability of food. Analysis of food taken from the stomachs of these birds reveals that their diet consists of about 75% matter and 25% vegetable. They favor beetles, beetle larva, ants, caterpillars, other insects, spiders, and snails. They also eat fruit, grain, poison ivy, and sumac berries, acorns, other seeds, and as discussed earlier the sweet sap of trees.

Though their diets are the same, males and females forage for food in different ways, Males characteristically forage on small-diameter branches higher up in mature trees, on smaller trunks of younger trees and on stems of weeds. Females use larger branches and trunks of trees. It is the males that enforce this division with their dominance as the smaller branches yield higher quantities of food. Both sexes usually move upward from lower to higher elevations on vertical trunks and both can hang upside down and spiral as they glean.

Downy woodpeckers have several physical adaptations that make them efficient drillers and gleaners of tree limbs. Their feet have a unique arrangement of toes that is called zygodactyl. They have two toes that point forward and one that point backwards. This allows their feet to grip onto bark as they climb up, down, and around trunks and branches. They have stiff, strong rectrices or tail flight feathers. The structure allows them to use the tail as a prop and a spring as they peck into bark. Their sharply pointed bills make fine picks as they probe cracks and crevices, and they use their long, barbed tongues like rakes for removing food when they find it. Along with their super long tongues, downy woodpeckers have extra sticky saliva to help lap up insects and morsels from their hiding places.

Woodpeckers peck at trees with incredible force as they chisel away at wood. Downies are capable of repeated hammering on a tree at remarkably high speeds. It’s really amazing that they don’t get severe brain injuries in the process. Researchers have found three keys to woodpeckers' ability to withstand high speed banging: their small size, which reduces the stress on the brain; the short duration of the impact, which increases the ability to withstand a hit, and the orientation of the brain within the skull with a layer of spongy elastic material between the bill and the skull to cushion the blows.

Downy woodpeckers don’t sing melodic songs. They have high pitched whinnies and squeaky calls for alarm, but they do most of their territory claiming and courtship communication through rhythmic hammering with their beaks called drumming. In the northeast, the birds usually start drumming in earnest in February and March. Pairs with a plentiful food supply are more likely to stay together all year long but renewal of (or new) pair bonds occur in late winter. As winters warm with climate change, drumming is occurring earlier than in the past.

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The Butterfly Flight is a spectacular courtship display usually performed on sunny, warm spring days in early spring. The male and female chase one another in a flight where they hold the wings high and flap them slowly and weakly like a butterfly as they move in dancelike patterns through open spaces between trees. At times they fly in long, deep loops referred as the flutter aerial display.

Downy woodpeckers excavate their nests in dead trees or dead limbs. They typically choose a small stub of a branch and place the entrance hole on the underside. Nest trees are deciduous, and the wood is often infected with a fungus that softens the wood, making excavating easier. Interestingly, the band of feathers just above the beak is to protect the nostrils from wood chips getting in during excavation. Both males and females excavate the nest which can take up to 3 weeks. Entrance holes are round and 1 to 1.5 inches in diameter. Nest cavities are 6-12 inches deep and widen toward the bottom to make room for eggs and the incubating bird. The cavity is lined only with wood chips. The female lay 3 to 8 eggs and female does most of the incubating. The chicks hatch in about 12 days and fledge at about 3 weeks.

Downy woodpeckers are the most likely woodpecker to visit a backyard bird feeder. They have a close relative that looks almost exactly like them but are much bigger that also visit suet feeders. This big twin is called the (Dryobates villosus). Unless they are right next to each other, it can be hard to tell them apart. It’s fun to try to learn the difference between these look-alikes!

Activity: Identify the Differences Between Downy and Hairy Woodpeckers Read the material in this link about downy and hairy woodpeckers to decide which one of the woodpeckers in the photo is the downy and which one is the hairy woodpecker. In addition, can you tell if they are males or females?

Need more information? You can learn more about downy and hairy woodpecker identification in this video; Ten Facts About Downy Woodpeckers

Additional Resources All About Birds - Downy Woodpecker Lesley Evans Ogden: Lesley the Bird Nerd - 10 Fun Facts About Downy Woodpeckers ABC Birds - Downy Woodpecker All About Birds - Hairy Woodpecker

*All bird photos courtesy of Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Macaulay Library, Ithaca NY

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