Hairy woodpeckers

Female Hairy Woodpecker, Picoides villosus

Male Hairy Woodpecker, Picoides villosus

This morning there was a great deal of activity in our backyard, and amongst all the visitors was this female Hairy Woodpecker. The male showed up later in the afternoon.

The male has a vivid red patch on the back of the head, but his wife shows no such giddiness; plain black and white are good enough for her. The Handbook of Nature Study pg. 70

I haven't done a good job of keeping my suet feeder full this winter. Just this week I refilled it and was almost instantly treated to visits from the woodpeckers. I purchase the suet refills, but they would be easy to make and I'm sure the kids would enjoy helping me. I could make a batch, freeze them and pull them out as needed. I wonder if I can make a suet mixture that's less likely to melt as the weather gets warmer.

I hadn't figured out how to tell the difference between the Hairy and the Downy woodpecker before today. I searched through my field guides and the internet a bit and discovered that the outer tail feathers of the Downy are white with black spots, and these same feathers on the Hairy are plain white (although apparently this depends which side of North America you are on). If you look closely at the photos above you'll see the white outer tail feathers. I had learned before that the Hairy woodpecker is larger than the Downy, but unless they just happen to be sitting still right next to one another on a tree, I have never found this to be helpful in differentiating between them.

You can also see in the photos how they were using their stiff tails for support. When they are on trees they start at the bottom and work their way up to the top. They don't usually climb back down the tree headfirst, unlike the nuthatch and brown creeper.

They visited the feeder separately today, as we enter the breeding season and they start to build their nest I wonder if they will stay closer together.

Perhaps they have been feasting all winter on the Emerald Ash Borer infestation in our nearby forest.

And who chose the names for these birds anyways? I can't see how the one woodpecker is any 'hairier' than the other, fluffy downy one. I found a fun article on this topic.