Front:
allan Breaks
DOWNY W OODPECKER
Published by the National Association of Audubon Societies
Back:
No. 21 Downy Woodpecker
Length 634 inches
This is the smallest and most familiar of our
Woodpeckers. It is an almost exact copy of the
Hairy Woodpecker, only it is much smaller and
has black transverse bars on the white outer tail
feathers, whereas these tail feathers in the Hairy
are white without the bars.
The Downy Woodpecker is a general favorite
with that ever-increasing number of bird-lovers
who find pleasure in feeding the winter birds. In
company with the Nuthatches and Chickadees he
is a visitor that can always be depended on to
come to the feeding-shelf or to the suet-container.
In addition he does a lot of scouting for food on
his own account, and may be heard at all hours of
the day industriously tapping as he searches every
crevice and cranny in the bark of the trees of
lawn or orchard for the grubs and insects which
form his main bill of fare. He may often be seen
digging larvae out of weed stalks.
The note of the Downy can easily be distin-
guished from that of the Hairy, for it is neither
so loud nor so sharp.
The nest is usually in a dead tree. From four
to six white eggs are laid.
Classification: Order Pici. Family Picide.
Scientific name: Dryobates pubescens.
Range: A resident throughout the wooded portions of
the United States and Canada.
No. 21 from set of 50 Winter Birds of the Northeastern United
States. Published by the National Association of Audubon So-
cieties, 1974 Broadway, New York City. Price per set, in a box,
$1.00 post paid.
