Our Wonderful Woodpeckers

I've been hoping to writing this post for about as long as I've been writing this blog.  My dream was to get a good photograph of a Pileated Woodpecker, and then write about all of our woodpeckers.  This seemed to be a fairly ambitious (and most-likely unattainable) goal, because my sightings of these shy birds are usually fleeting.  I'd never taken any photos of this bird, let alone a good one!  Until Friday...

Female Pileated Woodpecker

This female Pileated Woodpecker swooped in and spent about 5 minutes eating the winter berries by our bird table.  I stuck the stems with berries there a month or so ago, thinking they might brighten up some of my bird photos, and perhaps some birds would eat them.   Maybe Cedar Waxwings if I was lucky.  Well... I was really thrilled and blessed to see the largest woodpecker in North America eat them!

There are a total of about 215 species of woodpeckers in the world.  They live just about everywhere there are trees (and some live in deserts where they make nest holes in saguaro cactus).   There are 6 kinds we normally see here.  As I said, the Pileated is the largest in North America (unless an Ivory-billed Woodpecker is surviving somewhere, which is very unlikely). 

Our smallest and also most common woodpeckers are Downy Woodpeckers at 6 to 7" long.  They are one of the friendliest birds at our feeders, seemingly having little fear of me when I go out to fill the feeders.  Males and females are easy to tell apart, as the males have red on the back of their heads and the females don't.

Female Downy Woodpecker

Looking almost exactly like a Downy Woodpecker except for their size, next are Hairy Woodpeckers (about 8 - 10" long).

Male Hairy Woodpecker

Their bills are heavier and longer in proportion to their head size, too.  It can take a little practice, but after you've seen both kinds for awhile, it's pretty easy to tell them apart.  In the previous 2 photos, you can compare their sizes with the suet cage.

Speaking of bills, one of the interesting things about woodpeckers are the bristle-like feathers which protect their nostrils from all the flying sawdust when they are pecking at dead trees.  (They aren't hairs... since birds don't have hair, they have feathers.  Don't ask me why "Hairy"s are called that!)

Male Downy - notice nasal bristles

Both Downy and Hairy Woodpeckers live here all year.  So does the next one, the Red-bellied.  They are very similar in size to Hairy Woodpeckers (about 8 - 10").

Male Red-bellied Woodpecker

They used to be more of a southern bird, but have gradually made their way northward to live.  I'm so glad they did!  They are one of my favorite birds and have been featured in several other posts, most notably when they won the "Best-Dressed Bird Award".  Click here to read about that.

The one above is a male, with his full head of red.  The females have red on the nape only.

Female Red-bellied Woodpecker

And young Red-bellied Woodpeckers don't have any red to speak of (but they sure are cute)!

Many people call them Red-headed Woodpeckers, but that's a completely different bird.  Red-headed Woodpeckers' entire heads are red and their backs are solid black with white wing patches.  So, why is a red-bellied called what it is?  Here's why...

Although it is hard to see, and not all of them have the tinge of red on their bellies, their name does apply.

Those 3 types all live here year-round.  The next two are migrants and you can expect to see them in northeastern PA only in the warmer months.  About the time the tree sap starts to run, you can look for a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker.  At 8 - 9" long they are our next-to-smallest woodpeckers.

Male Yellow-bellied Sapsucker.  Females don't have the red under their bills.

They visit trees and peck rows of holes, then come back later to drink the sap.  All woodpeckers have special tongues (quite long and with barbs on them to help them pull insects out of wood) but sapsuckers have shorter tongues coated with fine 'hairs' to help them lap up the liquid.  Here's one drinking from a tiny hole near the base of a sugar maple tree.   It's really well camouflaged there, isn't it?

Other creatures benefit from their work, too, like the Ruby-throated Hummingbird that had a drink at our crab apple tree. Both species not only drink the sap, they eat the insects that are attracted to it.

Trees seem to be able to withstand the holes just fine, as several of the trees in our yard have been used by the sapsuckers for many years.

Sapsuckers and hummers are not the only ones who like sweets.  Downy Woodpeckers are commonly seen drinking from hummingbird feeders.

Male Downy

The next woodpecker is not called a 'woodpecker' but it's in the family just the same.  It's a Northern Flicker.

Flickers (10 to 14" long) live across the whole United States but there are some interesting variations in them.  Our eastern ones are Yellow-shafted (notice this female's tail).  The underneath of their wings and tails are yellow, whereas the western ones are reddish.  You can see a Red-shafted Flicker here in my post about Colorado birds.

Flickers are very commonly seen on the ground, because they love to eat ants.

By the way, both my photos of Flickers are of females, even though they have red on the backs of their heads.  Male Flickers have the same red spot, but also have a black mustache on the sides of their faces (red in the case of the western birds).

Now, we're back to the amazing Pileated Woodpecker.  They measure in at 16 - 19" long!  

I literally gasped out loud when I looked out my kitchen window and saw this one.

She didn't waste any time eating those berries... it was pop, pop, pop...

She'd grab one after another and each time quickly throw her head back and swallow.

She ate until all the good berries were gone, then flew off into our hemlock tree and I haven't seen her again.  She's a memory I don't think I'll ever forget!

In this photo you can see how strong her bill and head are.  Woodpeckers have special physical characteristics that allow them to land hard blows on wood and not get hurt (or get a headache)!

Though I rarely see a Pileated (and then usually quick glimpses) I know they spend time in our woods.  That's because of the holes they leave behind.  Look at the size of this hole, with a matchbox for scale.

That's an old hole, but there are fresh new ones in the same and nearby trees.

The holes are often described as rectangular-shaped.  I'd say it would be hard to mistake them even if they didn't have the distinctive shape, because of their large size.

That's quite a pile of sawdust, too.

People may think that Woodpeckers damage trees, but since the trees are already dead, that's not true.  Although, I'm not too happy when they decide to peck on the wood siding on our house.  However, I love our Woodpeckers so much, I forgive them!  

Hairy parent (on right) feeding youngster