I’ve always liked woodpeckers, but before I moved into a cabin built hard against the trees in a woodland, I didn’t realize just how remarkable they are. Sharing my meals with the downy and hairy woodpeckers right outside the window, and working at a desk where I could see their day-to-day routines, has given me a new appreciation of their personalities and abilities.

Woodpeckers are beautiful birds, especially the huge pileated woodpeckers, with their almost prehistoric appearance. Here are three photos our photographer Tony Jancek took of a male in his back yard:

 

 

 

 
Pileated woodpeckers are about 18-inches from tail to topknot, and they pound rectangular holes in trees to reach the grubs burrowed deep inside. Here’s an old pine which has been completely drilled through from both sides by pileated woodpeckers:

 

 
Woodpeckers live year-round here in the north woods. As you walk through the winter woods, you might hear them tapping or pounding on trees as they search for a meal. Downy woodpeckers are smaller versions of the hairy woodpeckers, and the two species share the same habitat as the pileated. Downies may be the smallest woodpeckers on the continent, but they’re scrappy, and they can maneuver into smaller places than the other three. Hairies are about the size of jays, and can dig a bit deeper than downies. Both visit the suet cages outside my window, and both will eat the birdseed and pound on the stumps set out for them.

 

 
The downy (a female—no red patch on the back of her head) is on the left and a hairy (not sure if it’s a male or female) is on the other side of the tree on the right. Woodpeckers are devoted parents, with both parents feeding the offspring and patiently showing them how to hunt for grubs or visit the suet block.

 

 
Here a young male hairy (you can just see the red patch on his forehead—as he matures the red shifts to the back of his head) is fed fat by his father.

Woodpeckers use their tongues to lick suet that has melted to the sides of the suet cage, and to maneuver large seeds and corn around in their beaks:

 

 
They use their strong tails to brace themselves against trunks and branches, and as a counterbalance when pounding. Woodpeckers can also rotate their heads much of the way around their necks in order to look for predators. If one is seen, the woodpecker either remains perfectly still or will rotate round a branch or trunk to put the tree between them and their enemy.

The resident woodpeckers have pounded customized holes into the sides of a stump that serves as a bird table, and will select a sunflower seed, put it in one of the holes depending on the seed’s size and shape, and then pound the husk until they can reach the tender meat inside, which they extract with their beaks and tongues. Who says animals can’t use tools? To the woodpeckers, that particular stump is as much a tool as an anvil is to an ironmonger.

 

 
The woodpecker has fluffy feathers around the nostrils and eyes, perhaps to warm the cold air as they breathe, and to protect their noses and eyes from flying chips of wood. Their beauty, ingenuity, and parental devotion make woodpeckers among my favorite birds, and I never fail to enjoy their company.

 

 
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