Educate Yourself About the Hairy Woodpecker and Other Woodpeckers
Hairy Woodpecker
Picidae
The Hairy Woodpecker has a bill longer than the Downy Woodpecker, like the Downy, males have a small red patch on back of the head, black-and-white with a white back, and a Robin-sized body. Its length is 9 ½ in (24cm) Its wingspan is 15in (38cm) Its voice is a call of a Kingfisher-like-rattle; also a flat “pick”. Their eggs are pure white, of one clutch consisting of 4-6 or (3-6) eggs. Both male and female incubate for 11-15 days, and the fledging time is around 28-30 days. Both male and female feed their young. Both male and female look alike, except for the red marking on the back of the head. Juveniles of both sexes have red on their foreheads, in July and August.
The Hairy Woodpecker will usually stay in the same territory, with its mate for life. They are similar looking to the Downey Woodpecker, except for their much stouter bill and bigger body, and heir drumming is a louder, faster, and a little shorter than of the Downy’s. The males will do most of the nest-cavity excavation, in the top of a dead tree, therefore it is important to leave at least one dead tree on your property. Also leave some dead branches on a living tree which will serve as drumming posts, to make it possible for them to nest in your backyard.
The Hairy Woodpecker will usually feed pretty well with other birds at your bird feeders, in your lovely bird feeding garden, but will show some aggressions towards other visiting males, by threatening the intruder, with a swaying of the head and tail. He will show the same behavior with other females, but for having his tail spread out as well.
The process of excavation and extracting of fly larvae, is done by hanging on to the stems of goldenrod, and determining the quality of the fly larvae, by tapping on the ball-shaped galls, and listen for a response with their sharp hearing. Woodpeckers have a huge appetite for suet, and that probably comes from their great fondness of insect larvae witch are both high in fat. The woodpeckers also have sticky, saliva coated tongues, and tipped with barbs and bristles, twice as long as the beak, witch they probe into cavities searching for larvae, and other insects.
You would figure that these guys, would fly around with a major headache all the time, with all that hammering, but their skulls are extra thick, and very strong muscles around the scull and beak, absorbs most of the shock of the pounding. It is also good to know that without our woodpeckers, our trees would not be as healthy as they are, because of its love for pests like ants, caterpillars, flies, aphids, and adults of wood-boring beetles.
Pairs usually get together in late winter, long before they mate, and will stay together for the rest of the winter, with the male showing a strong dominance over the female. Woodpeckers usually prefer to excavate in treetops, where the bark is thinner, and easier to hammer deeper holes, but the male will often chase the female away, forcing her to feed lower down on the tree.
Also, during late winter months, when food is scares, the pair will sometimes split up for a while witch lets the female eat at better spots. They will also show tension amongst each other at your bird feeding stations in your lovely bird feeding garden. But all this bad behavior from the male usually ends, when spring is around the corner, and they will reunite and become more territorial together.
If you like to attract the Hairy Woodpecker to your lovely bird feeding garden, hang raw beef-kidney suet in a mesh bag, or a commercial one, and they love a nice helping of peanut butter and sunflower seeds too. Remember not to put out any suet, when temperatures are high above freezing since this can stain their feathers when the suet turns rancid.
