![]() ![]() The Hairy Woodpecker is more closely related to the very different looking Red-cockaded Woodpecker, while the Downy is closer to Nuttall’s Woodpecker.” (Living Bird summer 2019).Ī recent study (Eliot Miller et al. Their genetic lineages split off from a shared ancestor over 6 million years ago-about as far back as chimps and humans split. despite being look-alikes, these two species are not that closely related. I was thinking that these two woodpeckers must be closely related, their appearance and habitat requirements being so similar, but it turns out these two species are an excellent example of mimicry between unrelated species. According to the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology “. There are other differences - the downies have some black barring on their outer tail feather which hairy woodpeckers lack as well as subtle differences in the amount of white on their necks and the red patch on the nape, but, seriously, go with bill size. a diminutive 6 inches). But when they aren’t together, size can be difficult to determine. The easiest way to tell these two woodpeckers apart is bill size. The downy’s is small and almost triangular, it is about a third of the length of the downy’s head. The hairy’s is much larger, almost as long as its head and, where the downy’s bill looks dainty, the hairy’s is robust. It took me awhile to become confident in my identification, but once I started looking at bill size I felt like a pro. Hairy woodpeckers also come to my bird feeder, swooping in as the downy woodpeckers scatter. They are almost identical, but seen together it is easy to see that the hairy is much larger than the downy (9 inches vs. Being able to tell a downy from a hairy woodpecker is one of those "rites of passage" for a birdwatcher. I suppose before that comes knowing that these two woodpeckers live around here and can be difficult to tell apart. Downy woodpeckers are the most common woodpecker in New England. They are cute little woodpeckers that like suburbia, mostly for our wonderful suet feeders (they also like black oil sunflower seeds). In the winter, these woodpeckers form mixed flocks with those other iconic winter bird feeder birds - chickadees, nuthatches and titmice. I’ve been watching a trio of downies all winter at my feeders, they swoop in with the chickadees and seem to spend their time divided between the suet feeder and the old locust tree that holds the feeders, looking for insects as they work their way up the branches. ![]()
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