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Downy Woodpecker

Picoides pubescens

Photo by dylanrkud
Published on Project Noah
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41.5933, -88.1982

Field Notes

Description:

The active little Downy Woodpecker is a familiar sight at backyard feeders and in parks and woodlots, where it joins flocks of chickadees and nuthatches, barely outsizing them. An often acrobatic forager, this black-and-white woodpecker is at home on tiny branches or balancing on slender plant galls, sycamore seed balls, and suet feeders. Downies and their larger lookalike, the Hairy Woodpecker, are one of the first identification challenges that beginning bird watchers master.

Habitat:

You’ll find Downy Woodpeckers in open woodlands, particularly among deciduous trees, and brushy or weedy edges. They’re also at home in orchards, city parks, backyards and vacant lots.

Species ID Suggestions

Downy Woodpecker

Picoides pubescens

Comments (1)

Welcome to Project Noah, dylanrkud I hope you like the site as much we do; there are many features you can explore: I invite you to go to http://www.projectnoah.org/faq where you will find the purpose and “rules” of Project Noah. There is a blog http://blog.projectnoah.org/ where we post articles from spotters with special insight into different organisms. There are also the chats for help with identification, and to comment on your own and others’ spottings. Look at the global and local missions to put your spottings into: http://www.projectnoah.org/missions Enjoy yourself here, see you around!

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