Hairy vs Downy (Woodpeckers)

Last night I was going through a few of my older photographs and came across one of a downy woodpecker, so I thought today would be a good time to put my woods-obscured hairy woodpecker photo next to a downy photo so you can (hopefully) see the difference in the bills. The "bill trick" is how I was taught to differentiate the two species, and it has always worked for me.

You really don't need to look at any other part of these two woodpeckers, other than the bill, to ID the birds. The downy's bill is tiny in comparison. In fact, next to the hairy woodpecker, the downy's bill barely looks woodpecker-ish at all. The hairy's bill is like Jimmy Durante's nose, a large and proud prominance.

The hairy woodpecker is quite a bit larger than the downy, but that's not always easy to judge when a bird is umpteen feet away from you in the woods. How the bill appears in relation to the bird's head is usually something that you can see.

The difference in the birds' bills also tells you a lot about where you'll commonly find them. The little downy is usually plying the branches of trees. The larger hairy is usually hanging out on the trunks of trees, as in my photo of the hairy.

Another "Missed" Bird

This just keeps getting better. Now I've seen yet another of the regular birds that I missed in January. It was the Hairy Woodpecker. Where were these birds during January?

Hairy woodpckers are easily told from Downy Woodpeckers if you see their bills. Hairy woodpeckers have a big, honkin' bill that's about as long as their heads are wide. You can just see the partially obscured bill in this photo. Downy woodpecker bills are tiny in comparison, less than half the width of the head, often just barely peeking past the little tufts of feathers where the bill begins.

Hairy woodpeckers are quite a bit larger than downy woodpeckers, but that's not always easy to tell unless the bird is close (and if you are familiar with the size of the more common downy woodpecker).

Hairy woodpeckers come to my feeders, but seem much shyer than the downy woodpeckers and startle easily. Well, that's another species to add to the foot-powered birding list (though if I'd seen this bird during January, when I should have seen it, my species count for that month would have reached 29, which is precariously close to theoretical 30 species I hope one day to find in January at the cabin).