Downy woodpecker vs hairy woodpecker Patch#

Downy woodpecker vs hairy woodpecker Patch#

(Males of both species have a red patch on their heads. If one or the other lands on your feeder, check out the bill - dainty downy or hardy hairy.īelow is a side-by-side comparison. The bill of the Hairy Woodpecker, on the other hand, looks more sturdy and substantial.

It isn’t fragile, of course, it’s quite strong. Beyond that, the bill of the downy just looks small and rather fragile. In the most simple terms, downys have small bills and hairys have big bills. So size can or can’t be a good way to tell them apart.įor me, the biggest difference is the size of the bill. There can be smallish Hairy Woodpeckers and largish Downy Woodpeckers. Within the genus, the downy woodpecker is sister to a clade containing Nuttalls woodpecker (Dryobates nuttalli) and the ladder-backed woodpecker (Dryobates. Plus, like any birds, there can be size variations within a particular species. Why they evolved this way cannot be explained with confidence it may be relevant that the species exploit rather different-sized foodstuffs and do not compete very much ecologically. But if you’re new to this birding thing and don’t have a point of reference to judge size, it’s tough. Despite their close resemblance, the downy and hairy woodpeckers are not very closely related the outward similarity is an example of convergent evolution. That’s enough of a difference that you’d think it would be easy to tell one from the other. The downy is a dainty six inches, while the hairy is a beefy nine inches. The two species are hard to tell apart because they basically look exactly the same, hence the confusion. Hopefully this posting will help some of you distinguish between the two.

I know it took me a long time to be able to tell the two woodpecker species apart with confidence. Beginning birders often confuse the two species. Also note the small black markings on the white outer tail feathers. What’s more, by comparing those results to encounters between other like species, the researchers were able to confirm that Hairys were particularly aggressive toward Downys in tight conditions. Focus on the bill: Downy has a very short bill, much shorter than the length of the head. Researchers found that out of 56 interactions, Hairys displaced Downys 96 percent of the time. Black-and-white plumage is nearly identical to the larger Hairy Woodpecker. If you live in New England you’re about to buried in snow so why not studies these photos and learn the differences between the hairy and downy woodpeckers. Tiny woodpecker, common and widespread across much of North America. And finally, downy woodpeckers are more prevalent, especially in suburban areas, than their hairy counterparts.A female Hairy Woodpecker clings to a suet feeder as snow falls in Jan. While hairy woodpeckers prefer tall trees and more forested area, downys often settle on younger trees or even cattails, the Audubon Society reports. Where you see the bird may also be a clue. The outer tail feathers on hairy woodpeckers are usually pure white, while downy woodpeckers typically have white tail feathers with black barring, giving the effect of being spotted, according to Project FeederWatch. The tail feathers can also serve as a key identification factor. Hairy woodpeckers also have a longer bill, about as long as their heads, while downy woodpeckers' bills are short in comparison, only about a third of the length of its head, the Audubon Society reports. Hairy woodpeckers stand about 9.25 inches long and are similar in size to a robin, while downy woodpeckers only measure about 6.5 inches long, similar in size to a house sparrow. So, then, how can you tell which type of woodpecker is the one you spy out your window? If you can get a close look, you'll spot some tell-tale signs that distinguish the two species from one another.įirst, hairy woodpeckers are bigger than downy woodpeckers. Both are found in Will County and throughout Illinois and the United States, and both are common in backyards, drawn to suet feeders and even seed feeders, according to Project FeederWatch.

With their black-and-white plumages and the males' flash of red on their heads, downy woodpeckers and hairy woodpeckers can be especially difficult to distinguish from one another.