Bird Directory

Downy Woodpecker	Name: Downy Woodpecker
	Field Marks: This small woodpecker is slightly larger than a sparrow. Look for a short bill and a white back. The male has a red patch on the back of its neck. Its wings are black with white spots.
	Feeder Food: Suet, fruit, cracked nuts
	Natural Food: Insects, insect larvae, spiders, berries, seeds
	Behavior: Have you ever seen a woodpecker holding on to the side of a tree? It can do this because instead of three toes which point forward and one backward like perching birds, woodpeckers have two toes forward and two backward. While drilling into the dead wood of tree trunk to find insects, this toes' arrangement helps the bird keep its grip. Song: rapid descending shinny, flat pick

Pictures were reproduced by permission.

Sources:

Alden, Peter and Brian Cassie, National Audubon Society Field Guide To New England, New York: Alfred A.Knopf, 1998.

Dawe, Neil and Karen, The Bird Book, New York: Workman Publishing, 1988.

Forbush, Edward Howe, Birds of Massachusetts, Norwood, Massachusetts: Norwood Press, 1929.

Reed, Chester R., Bird Guide: Land Birds East of the Rockies, Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1951.

Return to Bird Directory Main Page.

Return to Index Page.