Downy Woodpecker

Dryobates pubescens · Woodpeckers (Picidae)

1 — At your feeder tomorrow.

Status

Year-round resident, every habitat with trees, statewide

Length

5.5–6.7 in

Regions

Coast · Merrimack · Lakes · The Whites · Conn. River

What you notice first

A small black-and-white woodpecker on a thin twig or a weed stem — too small and light to be doing that if it were a Hairy — giving a soft, descending whinny.

Voice

A short, flat "pik" and a clear descending whinny that runs down in pitch and slows at the end; drumming is soft and comes in short bursts.

Where & when

Woodlands, thickets, orchards, cattail marshes, suet feeders. Every county, every month. The default small woodpecker anywhere south of treeline.

The Downy is the one you learn first and then spend years second-guessing against the Hairy. Size is the honest mark but hard to judge alone. Better: the bill. On a Downy it is short and dainty, clearly less than the width of the head from front to back; on a Hairy it is a chisel nearly as long as the head is wide. Downies also have black spots on the white outer tail feathers; Hairies’ are clean white.

Males have a small red patch on the back of the head; females have none. Otherwise the sexes look alike.

They take suet readily and will work sunflower feeders, but you’ll also find them tapping gall-swellings on goldenrod stems in a winter field, small enough to perch on the stalk while they do it.