Little Downy

It's been a busy week for me. Just for an update, I've had three visits to doctors within a week. It's nothing new. Just stuff from my car accident. To anybody who might see me, I look fine, but I'm still very far from okay. I'm getting better, but I'm not there yet.

Anyway, let's get on with my post. Above is a not very good picture of a Downy Woodpecker. I mentioned these little guys a few posts ago when I introduced a very similar bird, the Hairy Woodpecker.

The main difference between these two is their size. The downy woodpecker that we have here today is much smaller than the hairy woodpecker. If you see them side by side you might think one is a baby. The great thing is that I have them both here in the same forest.

This one above is an example of a Hairy Woodpecker.Take a look at his neck. It is longer than the smaller downy. He just looks bigger, doesn't he? And now you can compare their beaks in my pictures. The hairy has a much longer beak, about as long as his head. The downy's is comparably very short. Otherwise, they are almost identical.

And now back to the downy woodpecker. I've been hearing the tapping of these little guys for several weeks now. It could have also been the other guys, but it also could have been both. How's that? So I've been watching for woodpeckers for quite some time now.

As soon as I heard the knocking on this tree I began searching for him. This time I was lucky enough to see him up there. And yes, this one is a male bird. The red on the back of his head marks him as a male. The next picture shows that red very clearly for you. It's another one that isn't so good, but these birds are hard to get sometimes.

There's that little redhead. You may notice that the color in this shot is much better. That's because I was standing on the opposite side of the tree from where I started. The Sun helped me out a bt this time. The only problem was that this bird was very high up in this tree.

Soon after I took this picture the little bird flew away into the forest. I soon heard his loud tapping again, even though he was too far away now. Woodpeckers can make a pretty loud sound for such small birds. The first time I ever heard their tapping, I thought they must be huge.

I'll be back once again with another tale from the guy in the rat suit. Wouldn't you be really creeped out if you found out that I really do roam the forest in a white rat suit? You'll never know until you meet me out there.

Nature Center Magazine - Your starting place for nature! Mine too.