Woodpeckers are familiar backyard visitors and these two in particular are so similar we thought we’d help you distinguish which ones you may have at your feeding stations. Both the Downy Woodpecker and the Hairy Woodpecker are fun to spot and easy to attract: simply offer suet or our feed of the month (Woodpecker Mix) and you’ll see these feathered friends become frequent visitors.

General Woodpecker Fun Facts:

Woodpeckers drum to attract mates, establish territories and communicate. They can peck up to 20 times per second! But woodpeckers don’t get headaches. They have reinforced skulls that are structured to spread the impact force along with their tightly cushioned brains.
Universally, in flight, Woodpeckers have 3 flaps then a glide.
Woodpecker’s tongue is 4″ long and wraps around its skull.

The active little Downy Woodpecker is a familiar sight at backyard feeders and in parks and woodlots, where it joins flocks of chickadees and nuthatches, barely out sizing them. An often acrobatic forager, this black-and-white woodpecker is at home on tiny branches or balancing on slender plant galls, sycamore seed balls, and suet feeders. Downies and their larger lookalike, the Hairy Woodpecker, are one of the first identification challenges that beginning bird watchers master. Downy Woodpeckers are small versions of the classic woodpecker body plan. They have a straight, chisel-like bill, blocky head, wide shoulders, and straight-backed posture as they lean away from tree limbs and onto their tail feathers. The bill tends to look smaller for the bird’s size than in other woodpeckers. Downy Woodpeckers give a checkered black-and-white impression. The black upper parts are checked with white on the wings, the head is boldly striped, and the back has a broad white stripe down the center. Males have a small red patch on the back of the head. The outer tail feathers are typically white with a few black spots.

The larger of two look alike, the Hairy Woodpecker is a small but powerful bird that forages along trunks and main branches of large trees. It wields a much longer bill than the Downy Woodpecker’s almost thorn-like bill. Hairy Woodpeckers have a somewhat soldierly look, with their erect, straight-backed posture on tree trunks and their cleanly striped heads. Look for them at backyard suet or sunflower feeders, and listen for them whinnying from woodlots, parks, and forests. A medium-sized woodpecker with a fairly square head, a long, straight, chisel-like bill, and stiff, long tail feathers to lean against on tree trunks. The bill is nearly the same length as the head. Hairy Woodpeckers are contrastingly black and white. The black wings are checkered with white; the head has two white stripes (and, in males, a flash of red toward the back of the head). A large white patch runs down the center of the black back.

Click below to hear the Downy Woodpecker.

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You should have no problem spotting our bird of the month since it is the most common hawk in North America. The Red-tailed Hawk is a bird of open country. Look for it along fields and perched on telephones poles, fence-posts, or trees standing alone or along edges of fields.  Mammals make up the bulk of most Red-tailed Hawk meals. Frequent victims include voles, mice, wood rats, rabbits, and ground squirrels. The hawks also eat birds, including pheasants, bobwhite, starlings, and blackbirds; as well as snakes and carrion. Individual prey items can weigh anywhere from less than an ounce to more than 5 pounds.  Pretty cool, until you think about cute little bunnies being carried away.  Red-tailed Hawks are large, sharp-taloned birds that can be aggressive when defending nests or territories. They frequently chase off other hawks, eagles, and Great Horned Owls.  Courting Red-tailed Hawks put on a display in which they soar in wide circles at a great height. The male dives steeply, then shoots up again at an angle nearly as steep. After several of these swoops he approaches the female from above, extends his legs, and touches her briefly. Sometimes, the pair grab onto one other, clasp talons, and plummet in spirals toward the ground before pulling away.

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If you want to attract hummingbirds to your yard over the long term, it is recommended that you also give serious consideration to planting perennials that are naturally attractive to hummingbirds.  The Rock Pile Garden Center will be carrying a number of perennials sure to please hummimgbirds such as bee-balm, columbine, lobelia, astilbe, coreopsis, dianthus, foxglove, echinacea, blanket flower, lavender, garden phlox, Russian sage, sedum and veronica.  Add these shrubs to your yard for even more hummers: weigela, crapemyrtle and leptodermis.  With a little care the flowers represent a long-term investment. Another plus in planting flowers to attract hummingbirds is that many of the same plants that attract hummingbirds also attract butterflies.  For a  list of plants that Hummingbirds will love CLICK HERE!

Press play below to hear the Ruby-throated Hummingbird.

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We all know birds need to eat and drink to survive. But quite often we forget about their shelter. Not all birds create their own homes. Some birds like woodpeckers and chickadees excavate cavities in tree trunks for nesting and roosting. Many other species such as wrens, bluebirds, titmice, and some ducks and owls, nest in cavities that other birds have made. Nest boxes offer these birds a place to raise their young, especially where natural cavities are at a premium. About 80 species of birds nest in cavities and are candidates for using a nest box. Remember that the kinds of birds you’ll attract are affected by where you live and what the surrounding habitat is like.

Our sales associates can guide you in finding the right nesting box for your yard and offer information about nest box placement and how to avoid predators. Don’t forget the nesting material! If you put up a nest box, please be a responsible landlord. Nest boxes should be maintained on a regular basis. Unmonitored nest boxes can easily become home to House Sparrows or Starlings, that aggressively compete with native birds, destroying eggs and chicks and sometimes vulnerable adult birds.

Now is the prefect time of year to put up nesting boxes. Having a bird-friendly yard has never been more important – nearly 80 percent of wildlife habitat in the United States is in private hands, and an average of 2.1 million acres each year are converted to residential use. This leaves less forested areas that contain rotting wood for nesting cavities. Support our wildlife, cohabitate with the birds this year.