February 04 – My Nature Journal

Downy Woodpecker

Dryobates pubescens

This little male Downy Woodpecker flitted through the trees just ahead of me as I walked through the forest this afternoon.

He crisscrossed the trail several times but always landed just a few feet off to the side and a yard or two ahead of me.

He could have avoided me completely by flying deeper into the trees but we kept pace with each other for several minutes.

Eventually, he must have decided I was going to keep advancing and darted away in a black-and-white blur. But he was a charming little companion while I had him.

Downy Woodpeckers look almost exactly like another woodpecker species that lives in my area, the Hairy Woodpecker (Leuconotopicus villosus). The two species differ only in size and the length of their bills.

At seven inches (18 cm) in length, the Downy Woodpecker is slightly smaller than the Hairy Woodpecker, which grows to about nine inches (23 cm), and has a shorter, thinner bill.

In my experience, the two are very difficult to differentiate in the field. Neither bird is very big and a two inch size difference isn’t very much when the birds themselves are seen against the backdrop of an entire forest landscape.

It’s easier to judge their bills visually but you have to have a clear and up-close view to really spot the subtle differences. And in my experience, these birds don’t stay in one spot for very long at all. They are very active little birds and either spiral up a tree trunk rapidly or flit from one perch to another quickly.

For these reasons, I really appreciate my camera and telephoto lens. Photographic nature journaling gives me the chance to snap photographs of the wildlife I see, freeze them in time, and identify the challenging species at my leisure once I’m home.