Banner Photo by Ann Kramer

Featured Bird

MEET THE HAIRY WOODPECKER (Leuconotopicus villosus)
by Jeff Sinker

With a few exceptions, the Hairy Woodpecker is found across much of North America with smaller ranges in Mexico and Central America. This larger, look-a-like version of the Downy Woodpecker is non-migratory and easily attracted to bird feeders. Suet, peanut butter and sunflower seeds are favorite foods and once these resourceful woodpeckers find your buffet, they will faithfully keep returning!

These woodpeckers nest in both dead and living trees. If you have snags on your property or in your yard, and it is safe to leave them standing, you may well attract a breeding pair. They are not terribly picky about height (from 4-60 feet above ground, with the average height being 20 feet). Once the site is chosen and the cavity is excavated, little else is done to the interior other than adding some wood chips at the bottom for the eggs and nestlings to sit on. A somewhat unique feature is the downward-facing entrance hole. It is thought this may deter other cavity-nesting species from taking over the nest site from the woodpeckers. A successful pair will raise one brood (3-6 eggs); incubation 11-12 days; nestling 28-30 days and both parents care for the young before and after fledging.

Hairy Woodpeckers are found in a wide variety of habitats up to an elevation of approx. 6,500 feet. Wherever they are found, more than 75% of their diet consists of bugs, bugs, more bugs and the larvae of bugs! Wood-boring beetles are highly sought after and if a large group of these woodpeckers descends upon a stand of trees, it can be a sign of an infestation of harmful bark beetles (or codling moths in fruit orchards). They also visit sap wells drilled by sapsuckers and orchards for fruits (and of course the bugs drawn to both the sap and the fruit). 

Although this is a very common woodpecker, it is also one of the least studied. Even so their population has increased from 1966-2019 to an estimated global population of 8.9 million birds. They can be negatively impacted by the fragmentation of large tracts of forest. Additionally, cavity-nesting European Starlings compete with the woodpeckers for nest sites where their territories overlap.

Learn more: www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Hairy_Woodpecker

Photo: www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Hairy_Woodpecker by Anthony Gliozzo/Macaulay Library

Range map: purple (year-round); www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Hairy_Woodpecker