|
Hairy
Woodpecker
Picoides villosus [Eastern
Hairy Woodpecker]
[Published
in 1939: Smithsonian Institution United States National Museum
Bulletin 174: 13-24]
The hairy woodpecker *** ranges throughout practically all the
timbered regions in North America ***. In the region where I am
most familiar with it, southern New England, it is not an abundant
bird at any season, quite rare in summer and oftener seen in
winter. It is essentially a retiring, forest-loving bird, being
found with us in summer in the dry deciduous woods, or
occasionally in rural districts in old orchards near the borders
of wooded areas. In winter, it is given more to wandering into
villages and towns, or may be seen even in the shade trees in
larger cities.
I remember having found it only twice in swampy woods, but Dr.
George M. Sutton (1928b), in his paper on the birds of Pymatuning
Swamp, Crawford County, Pa., says: "The hairy woodpecker
occurs only rarely in the higher deciduous woods outside the
borders of Pymantuning during the nesting season, but it is
abundant everywhere in the wooded Swamp, and in the restricted
area, closely examined in 1922, was considered one of the most
numerous species."
Courtship.--Francis H. Allen has
sent me the following notes on this subject: "The courtship
dance consists of a weaving motion of the head, as with the
flicker, accompanied by a high-pitched ch'weech, ch'weech,
ch'weech, repeated over and over vociferously. The note is
much like that of the flicker, but higher pitched and more rapidly
delivered. Three and sometimes four birds may be seen so engaged
together, but I have no observation as to the sexes. In quiet
intervals in courtship, the head is held with bill parallel with
the axis of the body, not at right angles as in feeding."
Edward H. Forbush (1927) writes:
On bright March days this bird begins to practise what is
either a love song, a challenge, a call to its mate, or all
combined. This is no vocal music but instead a loud drumming on
some resonant dead tree, branch, or pole. This long roll or tattoo
is louder than that of the downy woodpecker, not quite so long,
and with a slightly greater interval between each succeeding
stroke. It takes a practiced ear, however, to distinguish between
the drumming of these two species. In courtship the male chases
the female from tree to tree with coaxing calls, and there is much
dodging about among the branches and bowing to each other before
the union is consummated.
Rex Brasher (1926) writes:
Seated under a cluster of small maples, one day in early
May, I watched the interesting courting antics of the pair. The
jaunty male's favorite position was one in which he appeared to be
almost standing on his tail. With bill upright, wings thrown
forward, and tail wide-spread he repeated over and over what was
undoubtedly intended for a love-song, a series of notes divided
between chuckles and whistles. But the strangest, most mystifying
performance was a series of backward drops on the under side of a
limb inclined about forty-five degrees. . . . Why didn't the
little acrobat fall when he released his claws? Studying his
movements carefully through the binoculars, I came to the
conclusion that at the instant of releasing his grip he jerked his
body toward the limb with sufficient impetus to catch the bark six
inches or so below.
Lewis O. Shelley says in his notes: "I have watched the
act of copulation of the hairy woodpecker and noted its
dissimilarity to the downy. For the hairy invariably instills a
follow-up procedure to the display, the male coming to her call
and, soon thereafter, hopping up the branch toward her with a
short jerking movement, in which he calls wick-up, wick-up,
wick-up, wings agitating, this immediately followed by
copulation."
Nesting.--The hairy woodpecker is
rather rare, as a breeding bird, in my home territory of
southeastern Massachusetts, but I have the records of 12 local
nests. It shows a decided preference for deciduous woodlands, six
of the nests being in dry, upland woods and two in maple swamps;
of the other four nests, three were in apple orchards, close to
extensive wood lots, and the fourth was in a small, living, red
maple in a swampy meadow, some distance from any woods. The birds
showed no decided preference for any one species of tree; three
nests each were found in maples and apple trees, two each in
chestnuts and poplars, and one each in a dead oak and a dead
beech. Only four nests were in dead trees or dead branches; the
others were all in living hardwoods. The heights from the ground
varied from 5 feet in a dead poplar stub to 30 feet, or more, in
tall chestnuts or maples. The entrance to the nesting cavity often
appears nearly, or quite, circular, but on careful measurement
will usually be shown to be more or less elliptical, higher than
broad; a typical entrance hole that I measured was 1 7/8 high by 1
1/2 inches wide. The depth of the cavity was found to vary from 10
to 12 inches, but Mr. Shelley (1933) measured one that was 15
inches deep, and even deeper holes have been reported. Owen
Durfee's notes give some very careful measurements of two of our
local nests, one of which is worth quoting as showing an unusually
elliptical entrance: "The entrance to the nest was on the
northeast side of the trunk of a live chestnut and 22 1/2 feet
from the ground. The tree leaned toward the east about 2 feet. At
the butt it was 9 inches in diameter and at the opening about 6
1/2 inches. The opening had the usual elongated appearance, 2 5/8
high by 1 7/8 inches wide. The top of the hole went straight in
across the the cavity for 4 1/2 inches, the bottom edge of the
opening slanting up 3/4 of an inch while going in 1 1/2 inches.
Then the cavity went nearly straight down below the hole for 12
inches, enlarging only a trifle, so that the base was about 4 1/2
inches in diameter. The shell of the tree was only about 7/8 inch
thick on one side but on the other was 2 inches thick."
Dr. Sutton (1928b) says of the nests in Pymantuning Swamp, Pa.:
"The cavities were drilled near the tops of dead trees which
nearly always stood in water. It was impossible to climb many of
them because their bases were weak; but the clamoring of the young
birds could be heard some distance away. On May 30, 1922, I
located six nests within a half hour by watching the parent birds
and listening for the young. . . . The twenty-six nests averaged
roughly over thirty feet from the ground."
T. E. McMullen mentions in his notes a Pennsylvania nest that
was 50 feet from the ground in a large maple in some woods. J.
Claire Wood (1905) reports some very high nests in Michigan; one
was in the "trunk of a very large barkless dead elm about 50
feet above ground"; another was in the trunk of a "dead
beech 55 feet up and just under a large limb."
The female probably selects the nesting site, but both sexes
work alternately at the labor of excavating the cavity. This work
requires one to three weeks, depending on how hard the wood is; a
cavity in the soft wood of a poplar, which is a favorite with this
species in some localities, might be excavated in a very short
time, but I have known a pair to take over three weeks to excavate
a nest in a hard maple; the trunk of a living tree may have a soft
center, and some of the birds seem to be clever enough to select
such a tree. A new nest may often be recognized by the presence of
fresh chips on the ground around the tree, as the birds are not
very particular about removing them.
The male sometimes digs out another shallower hole near the
nesting tree, which he uses as a sleeping place. Usually a fresh
hole is made each season, but I have seen occupied holes that were
very much weathered, as if they had been occupied for more than
one season; in such cases, the cavity may be deepened somewhat and
the bottom covered with fresh chips. I once found a pair of these
woodpeckers excavating their domicile, which they later abandoned,
as I found on a later visit that the hole was partly full of water
and sap. They are not always successful in their first attempt,
for this and other reasons, and may have to start two or three
holes before they find just the conditions they want. The eggs are
laid on a soft bed of fresh chips at the bottom of the cavity and
are usually half buried in it; no nesting material is carried in.
Eggs.--The hairy woodpecker lays
three to six eggs, but four seems to be the commonest number. The
eggs vary in shape from oval to elliptical-oval, usually more
nearly oval. The shell is smooth and often quite glossy. The color
is pure white, but in fresh eggs the yolk shows through the
translucent shell, giving the egg a beautiful orange-pink color.
The measurements of 47 eggs average 23.81 by 18.04 millimeters;
the eggs showing the four extremes measure 29.50 by 18.80,
28.70 by 18.90, and 20.57 by 16.26
millimeters.
Young.--Only one brood is raised in
a season, but if the nest is robbed, the female will lay a second
set after an interval of 12 or 14 days, and sometimes even a third
set; often subsequent layings may be in the same nest hole.
Bendire (1895) says:
The duties of incubation are
divided between the sexes and last about two weeks. The young when
first hatched are repulsive looking creatures, blind and naked,
with enormously large heads, and ugly protuberances at the base of
the bill, resembling a reptile more than a bird. They are totally
helpless for some days, and can not stand; but they soon learn to
climb. They are fed by the parents by regurgitation of their food,
which is the usual way in which the young of most Woodpeckers are
fed when first hatched. . . . the young remain in the nest about
three weeks. When disturbed they utter a low, purring noise, which
reminds me somewhat of that made by bees when swarming, and when a
little older they utter a soft "puirr, puirr." Even
after leaving the nest they are assiduously cared for by both
parents for several weeks, until able to provide for themselves.
Plumages.--The young hairy, like
all other young woodpeckers, is hatched naked, and the juvenal
plumage is assumed while in the nest, so that when the young birds
emerge they are fully fledged. In the juvenal plumage the sexes
are sometimes much alike, though oftener there is a decided
difference. In both sexes the bill is decidedly smaller, weaker,
and more pointed than in the adult; the color pattern is almost
exactly like that of the adult, but the plumage is softer and
fluffier; the white markings are more or less tinged with
yellowish, the two inner primaries are dwarfed, and the innermost
white tail feather is usually tipped with black. The colored
markings in the crown of both sexes are very variable in color and
in extent. L. L. Snyder (1923) has made a careful study of the
crown markings of young hairy and downy woodpeckers of both sexes.
He found that 90 percent of the young male hairies had more or
less red, pinkish, or yellowish markings in the crowns, and only
about 14 percent of the young females were so marked. But only 10
percent of the young males and about 43 percent of the young
females had white markings only on a black crown; and about 43
percent of the young females had the entire crown black. There is
great individual variation in the amount and in the distribution
of these colors; the white spots are often mixed with the other
colors; the reddish and yellowish colors may invade nearly the
whole crown, exist in one or two large patches, or appear on only
a few scattered feathers.
The juvenal plumage is worn but a short time; the molt into the
first winter plumage is accomplished between July and October.
This first winter plumage is much like that of the adult in both
sexes, but the white spots are not quite so pure white, and the
red nuchal patch of the male is duller and often interrupted.
Adults have a complete postnuptial molt in August and September
and perhaps a partial prenuptial molt in spring.
Food.--Various studies of the food
habits of the hairy woodpeckers show that these birds are among
our most useful birds and especially valuable as protectors of our
forest and shade trees and orchards. More than 75 percent of their
food consists of injurious insects, while the amount of useful
insects and cultivated fruits that they destroy is insignificant.
Prof. F. E. L. Beal (1911) has published the most exhaustive
report on this subject, based on the study of 382 stomachs
collected during every month in the year and from many parts of
the range of the species, including practically all of the races.
He says: "In the first analysis the food divides into 77.67
percent of animal matter and 22.33 of vegetable. The animal food
consists of insects, with a few spiders and millepeds; the
vegetable part is made up of fruit, seeds, and a number of
miscellaneous substances." Of the animal food, he says:
"the largest item in the annual diet of the hairy woodpecker
consists of the larvae of cerambycid and buprestid beetles, with a
few lucanids and perhaps some other wood borers. These insects
constitute over 31 percent of the food and are eaten in every
month of the year. . . . One stomach contained 100 of these larvae
and 83 and 50, respectively, were taken from two others. Of the
382 stomachs, 204, or 53 percent, contained these grubs, and 27 of
them held no other food. Other beetles amount to a little more
than 9 percent."
Ants rank second in importance, amounting to a little more than
17 percent, and are taken every month in the year; other
Hymenoptera are eaten in very small quantities and irregularly.
Caterpillars are the next most important item, many of them
wood-boring species, amounting to a little less than 10 percent.
"Prof. F. M. Webster states that he has seen a hairy
woodpecker successfully peck a hole through the parchment-like
covering of the cocoon of a Crecopia moth and devour the contents.
On examining more than 20 cocoons in a grove of box elders, he
found only 2 uninjured," according to Professor Beal (1911),
who adds that bugs (Hemiptera) and plant lice (aphids) form only a
small part of the food, and says: "Orthoptera, that is,
grasshoppers, crickets, and cockroaches, are rarely eaten by the
hairy. A few eggs, probably those of tree crickets, and the egg
cases (ootheca) of cockroaches, constitute the bulk of this food.
These with a few miscellaneous insects amount to a little more
than 2 percent for the year. Spiders with their cocoons of eggs,
including one jointed spider (Solpugidae), and a few millepeds,
were eaten to the extent of about 3.5 percent, which completes the
quota of animal food."
He says further:
The vegetable food of the hairy woodpecker may be considered
under four heads: Fruit, grain, seeds, and miscellaneous vegetable
substances. Fruit amounts to 5.22 percent of the food, and was
contained in 54 stomachs, of which 13 held what was diagnosed as
domestic varieties, and 41 contained wild species. Rubus seeds
(blackberries or raspberries) were identified in 4 stomachs, and
were counted as domestic fruit, but it is perhaps more probable
that they were wild. . . . Of wild fruit 18 species were
identified. It constitutes the great bulk of the fruit eaten, and
is nearly all of varieties not useful to man.
Corn was the only grain discovered in the food. It was found
in 10 stomachs, and amounted to 1.37 percent. . . . The seed of
poison ivy and poison sumac (Rhus radicans and R. vernix)
were found in 17 stomachs, and as they usually pass through the
alimentary canal uninjured, the birds do some harm by scattering
the seeds of these noxious plants. . . . Cambium, or the inner
bark of trees, was identified in 23 stomachs. Evidently the hairy
does but little damage by denuding trees of their bark. Mast, made
up of acorns, hazelnuts, and beechnuts, was found in 50 stomachs.
It was mostly taken in the fall and winter months, and appears to
be quite a favorite food during the cooler part of the year.
Illustrating the quantities of insects eaten by individual
birds, F. H. King (1883), Wisconsin, writes: "Of twenty-one
specimens examined, eleven had eaten fifty-two wood-boring larvae;
five, thirteen geometrid caterpillars; ten, one hundred and five
ants; six, ten beetles; two, two cockroaches; two, nine ootheca of
cockroaches; two, two moths; one, a small snail; one, green corn;
one, a wild cherry; and one, red elderberries. . . . One of the
above birds had in its stomach eleven wood-boring larvae (Lamides?)
and twelve geometers; another, thirteen larvae of long-horn
beetles and four cockroach ootheca; another, nine wood-boring
larvae; and two others together had three wood-boring larvae, and
nine larvae not coleopterous."
V. A. Alderson (1890) published the following interesting note:
"Last summer, potato bugs covered every patch of potatoes in
Marathon County (being my home county), Wis. One of my friends
here, found his patch an exception, and therefore took pains to
find the reason, and observed a hairy woodpecker, making frequent
visits to the potato field and going from there to a large pine
stub a little distance away.
"After observing this for about six weeks, he made a visit
to the pine stub and found, on inspection, a large hole in its
side about fifteen feet up. He took his axe and cut down the stub,
split it open, and found inside, over two bushels of bugs. All had
their heads off and bodies intact."
The woodpecker's method of locating tree-boring larvae and its
specialized apparatus for extracting them are so well described by
Dr. Thomas S. Roberts (1932) that I cannot do better than to quote
him, as follows:
The hairy woodpecker possesses in its tongue one of the most
remarkably developed and perfectly adapted instruments for
retracting the tree larvae from their tunnels. The tip is a rigid,
barbed spear and can be thrust out to an astonishing distance by
reason of greatly elongated, posterior horns which pass up over
the back and top of the head and run together down in front of the
right eye, around which they are coiled for almost the entire
circumference of the socket! So that, the drilling into the tunnel
accomplished, the tongue darts out, the inner ends uncoil, the
spear transfixes the grub, and with little ado the larvae is
dragged from its retreat into the bill of the bird, pounded
perhaps for a moment or two, swallowed forthwith or carried to the
young, and this most perfectly contrived and highly efficient
engine is once more ready for action. There has been considerable
discussion as to how the woodpeckers locate the larvae, active or
dormant, which are hidden deeply in the wood and for which they
drill so unerringly. All the special senses of birds are very
highly developed, and it seems probable that in this case hearing,
touch, and smell all may play a part. The active grub, as it
crunches the wood, makes a sound that would surely be audible to a
bird with its keen sense of hearing. The tunnel produces a cavity
which would give both a different sound and feeling on tapping
over it. Such things as grubs have a strong odor, and it is
probable that this plays a part also.
Forbush (1927) says: "Maurice Thompson asserts that the
hairy woodpecker strikes its bill into the wood and then holds the
point of one mandible for a moment in the dent thus made. He
believes that the vibrations produced by the insect in the wood
are then conveyed through the beak and skull of the bird to its
brain."
In winter this woodpecker comes readily to suet or meat bones
hung up on our trees or feeding stations to attract birds. It is
also said to feed on the carcasses of animals left in the woods by
trappers or hunters and to pick the fat from fresh skins that the
trapper has hung up to dry. Although often called a sapsucker,
there is practically no evidence that it ever does any injury to
trees in this way; any sap or cambium eaten is probably taken
incidentally in its search for insects.
Behavior.--The hairy woodpecker
is a much shier, more retiring bird than the confiding little
downy; it is also more active and noisier; it usually will not
allow such close approach but will dodge around the trunk of a
tree or fly away, if an intruder comes too near, bounding through
the air in a series of graceful dips and rebounds. Rex Brasher
(1926) followed one for four hours that alighted "on two
hundred and eighteen different trees, an average of nearly one a
minute! The longest time he remained on one tree was seven
minutes. This was a dead chestnut with most of the bark still
adhering. By far the larger proportion of the trees were old
chestnuts, and under their loosely attached covering he found most
successful hunting. Rough-bark species were preferred--chestnuts,
oaks, old maples and hickories, about in the order named.
Smooth-barked ones received little notice."
Dr. Morris Gibbs (1902) says: "Have my readers carefully
watched a Woodpecker leave its perch on the trunk or limb? The
bird throws itself backward from its vertical position by a leg
spring, together with a tail movement, turns in the air in the
fraction of a second and is sweeping away to the next perch.
Arriving at the next resting place it makes a single counteracting
stroke of the wings against the air, and perches lightly on the
bark of limb or trunk."
Like all woodpeckers, the hairy is an expert climber, perfectly
at home on the trunk of a tree, or even on the under side of a
branch, where its strong claws enable it to cling in almost any
position or to move about with astonishing rapidity and skill in
any direction. Its stiff tail feathers act as a prop and help to
support it while hammering away at the bark with its powerful
beak. Forbush (1927) says that it "is the embodiment of
sturdy energy and persistent industry. Active, cheerful, ever
busy, its life of arduous toil brings but one reward, a liberal
sustenance. It sometimes spends nearly an hour of hard labor in
digging out a single borer, but commonly reaches the object of its
quest in much less time."
Voice.--The ordinary call of the
hairy woodpecker is louder and shriller than that of the downy.
Francis H. Allen says, in his notes, that it bears "about the
same relation to it as the solitary sandpiper's peet-weet
does to that of the spotted sandpiper. I hear it most frequently
from the female. In fact, a female of the species that visits my
place at all times of the year often utters this note continually,
as if calling for a mate or claiming territory, but she never
nests very near."
Bendire (1895) describes its ordinary note as "a shrill,
rattling note, triii, triii"; and again as several
loud notes uttered on the wing, like huip, huip. Forbush
(1927) calls the ordinary note "a high, sharp, rather
metallic chink or click." Aretas A. Saunders
(1929) says: "The call is a loud 'keep,' like that of
the downy woodpecker, but louder. Another call is a loud rattle,
suggesting that of the Kingfisher, but slurring down the scale.
Another call, 'kuweek kuweek kuweek kuweek,' is used during
the mating season, and suggests the Flicker's 'oweeka.'
"
Field marks.--The hairy
woodpecker is a large edition of the downy woodpecker, a black and
white woodpecker, white below and black above, spotted with white
on the wings, and with a broad white stripe down the center of the
back. Only the male has the red patch on the back of the neck. It
can be distinguished from the downy by its much larger size, its
more restless behavior, its relatively longer and larger bill, and
by the lateral tail feathers, which are pure white in the hairy
and somewhat barred with black in the downy.
Enemies.--B. T. Gault, in his
notes from Marshall County, Ill., states: "The hairy
woodpecker is now a very rare breeder here owing to the fact that
the English sparrow appropriates almost every nest hole as soon as
it is excavated. I once saw one of these sparrows enter the hole
of one of these birds, take a newly hatched bird out in its bill,
flutter for an instant over the water (the nest was in a dead
willow snag standing in the overflowed Illinois River bottoms),
and drop the young bird into the water to drown. It then returned
into the nest and soon appeared with another newly hatched
woodpecker in its bill. As it fluttered over the water for an
instant, my gun cracked and the sparrow died."
Verdi Burtch (1923) writes: "April 16, 1922, when in a
thin wood I heard a female hairy woodpecker making a great fuss as
they do when one invades the vicinity of their nest. As I neared
the place I saw the nest hole about twenty feet up in an elm stub.
About ten feet away, sitting erect on a limb of another tree, was
a red squirrel eating something that it held in its fore-paws. My
8 power binoculars showed this to be a naked baby bird, presumably
a hairy woodpecker and not more than two or three days old."
Mr. Shelley (1933) tells of a pair of hairy woodpeckers that
were twice, in the same season, driven out of their nest by
starlings and their eggs destroyed.
Fall.--The hairy woodpecker has often
been said to be a permanent resident on its breeding grounds, but
this is not strictly true. The species may be present all through
the year over much of its range, but there is evidence to indicate
a general southward movement in fall; the individuals seen in
winter are probably not the same as those seen in summer.
Moreover, there is a noticeable increase in numbers in certain
localities in winter.
Lewis O. Shelley has sent me some full notes on the migration
of hairy woodpeckers, as he has observed it near East
Westmoreland, N. H., from which I quote as follows:
"For four years I have watched, in the autumn months, passing
hairies that go through some dropping down into the valley to feed
as they go along, but others passing over the valley from hill to
hill (2 miles) without stopping. In passing through, they traverse
in general the same route each year. They come from an eastern and
continue on in a western direction at an oblique angle to the
Connecticut River, which they must cross in the vicinity of
Brattleboro, Vt.
"These migrants usually appear here late in August or
early in September and continue to arrive at irregular intervals
until late in October. It is common for one, or two, rarely more,
to pass together; but such occurrences have happened, as on
October 24, 1934, when, beginning soon after noon and lasting
until four o'clock, the birds continued to pass through. At least
12 were seen as I walked up a roadway parallel to their course;
and other moving birds were heard. It was also noticed that they
kept spaced 40 to 50 yards apart, keeping abreast of one another,
traversing in a leisurely manner; and as they approached a rock
maple woods, the tendency was to close in like passing through the
neck of a bottle and, once through the woods, again to spread out.
Their progress was rather fast; and they fed little, if at all.
They often called, as though to locate each other, since they were
keeping about 40 yards apart, as was easily noted when they
crossed pasture and mowing land.
"I followed and watched in particular a male that
continued keeping along ahead of me. He repeatedly crossed the
road in a zigzag manner. Climbing to the top of a fence post or
stump, he made lengthy observations, probably noting the progress
of the other birds, and often answered their ringing calls. He, as
well as the others, gave the appearance of a stranger in a new
environment, truly a migrant. I noted how low the birds were
passing, quite frequently flying not over 2 feet from the ground
over open spaces, where long, bounding flights were made."
L. McI. Terrill told Mr. Forbush (1927) that the few local
breeding birds disappear from the vicinity of Montreal early in
autumn, and others, in a very noticeable wave, appear toward the
end of October or early in November.
Winter.--Aside from the regular
migratory movements, the hairy woodpecker is much more given to
wandering about in winter. It is apt to forsake its woodland
haunts and travel about in search of food, coming frequently into
the farmer's orchard, into rural villages, and even into thickly
settled communities in some of our larger cities. Here it often
joins the merry parties at our winter feeding stations, feeding
readily on the suet or scraps of meat provided for our
insect-eating birds; and here the smaller birds show due respect
for its larger size, or perhaps for its formidable beak, and it is
usually allowed to eat alone. It seems to be a solitary bird at
this season, for we seldom see more than one at a time. I find it
not so constant and regular a visitor to my feeding station as the
downy woodpecker and some other birds; it probably wanders about
more.
Mr. Forbush (1927) writes: "During the inclement season it
is said to require a sheltered place in which to sleep and, like
the downy woodpecker, to excavate a hole in a tree for a sleeping
chamber, but there is evidence that it does not always seek such
shelter, as the late Charles E. Bailey and myself watched one for
several winter evenings in a grove, clinging upright against a
tree trunk in the usual woodpecker position. Night after night,
the bird was there at dusk, remained there until dark, and was
there also at daybreak each morning in precisely the same
place."
Joseph J. Hickey tells me that, around the lower Hudson River
Valley in winter, woodpeckers obtain much of their food by
deliberately scaling the bark off trees in search for their insect
food. The Arctic three-toed woodpeckers work mainly on pines and
hemlocks, but the hairies appear to confine their work to the
hemlocks, using the same methods as the three-toed.
Hairy Woodpecker*
Picoides villosus
[Eastern Hairy Woodpecker]
*Original Source: Bent,
Arthur Cleveland. 1939. Smithsonian Institution United
States National Museum Bulletin 174: 13-24. United States
Government Printing Office
Return
to FAMILIAR BIRDS Home Page
Return to
beginning of document
|
