DOWNY WOODPECKER
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The downy woodpecker is a small black and white bird with a tiny red cap. It frequents our open woods and orchards and in winter is a regular visitor to home feeders where it enjoys suet, an old meat bone or seeds.

Like all woodpeckers, it is equipped with four toes, two of which point backward and two forward. It also possesses a tail comprised of stiff feathers that terminate in sharp spines. This unusual equipment enables the small bird to hold tightly to a limb or tree trunk as it delivers hammer-like blows with a chisel-shaped beak. There is no sanctuary under bark or tree crevice for insects attempting to escape the little carpenter's attention. It locates them with amazing accuracy and digs them out with relish.

Early in the spring, the downy can be heard drumming its love song on some resonant limb. Its head moves with such rapidity that it seems only a blur. The drumming also determines whether the tree is green or hollow and sometimes it startles beetles, spiders or grubs from their hiding places.

There are six sub-species of the downy woodpecker, and the one in the Historic Triangle area is the southern downy which is more brown on the underparts than its northern cousin.

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