Hairy Woodpecker

The Hairy Woodpecker is an insectivorous woodpecker that will also eat fruits and seeds. Insects make up 80% of its diet. They are year round residents of mature forests across North and Central America.

Adult Male (spring/summer)

Forehead, crown and auricular black. Black  auricular extends to center of nape; white  supercilium extends to red at rear of crown; submoustachial stripe white and  inconspicuous white tuft at base of large  thick black bill. The back is white; uppertail  coverts black; chin, belly, flanks and  undertail coverts white. Wings black with  white bars; tail black with two outermost  feathers all white.

Adult Female (spring/summer)

Shorter billed and smaller than the male. Females do not have any red on the hindcrown which is black or mixed black and white.

Juvenile 

Duller than adults with the black areas being duller and the underparts darker. Will also have streaking or barring on the outer tail feathers. Both sexes have red-orange on crown, more extensive on males. Juveniles will also have a more pronounced eye ring.

General:

Large and strong woodpecker. Length: 18-26cm. Wing: 33-41cm. Weight: 40-95grams.

Behaviour:

Most observed in live trees with dead branches or conifer trees extracting seeds from cones. They will peck and hammer removing the bark or drilling holes into the trunk of a tree for beetle larvae, moths, sawfly and other insects. Both sexes drum in short rolls, which slow down at the end. Jumps from tree to tree at higher elevations foraging for insects and seeds. Rarely seen foraging on or near the ground.

Habitat:

Occupies a wide range of forest types and woodlands. They do prefer semi-open mixed woodlands or forest edges in higher elevations for breeding. Forages in mature forests, open meadows on forest edges, marsh areas, ponds, logged areas and old burns. They can consume as many as 20,000 mountain pine beetle larvae per hectare in a single season. When the mountain pine beetle increases in an area, the number of Hairy Woodpeckers also increases in the same area. Although they are much more shy than the Downy Woodpecker, they can often been seen in gardens at suet feeders during winter months.

Information:

The Hairy Woodpecker is widespread across North America and is found from sea level to high mountains. They have an altitudinal migration. They will stay year round in an area but will leave the higher mountain elevations during autumn and winter for lower altitudes right down to sea level. They may also partially withdraw from northern areas as a result of cold temperatures and high amounts of snow. Hairy and Downy woodpeckers occur together throughout most of their ranges and are best told apart by comparing body features, particularly the proportions of the birds head to beak which is about one to one. Habitat preference is also useful for separating the species with Hairy Woodpeckers tending to spend more time on the trunks of trees and Downy Woodpeckers using the smaller branches. Hairy Woodpeckers never feed on weed stalks, cattails or reeds. The longevity record for Hairy Woodpecker is 15 years 11 months. It is a cavity nester. The inside of the cavity widens and is typically bare except for a bed of wood chips. Clutch size is 3-6 all white eggs.

Similar species:

Downy Woodpecker, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, Nuttall’s Woodpecker, Ladder-backed Woodpecker, Red-cockaded Woodpecker.

Conservation Status:

Listed as Least Concern.

Capture Rates

The Hairy Woodpecker is a year round resident of woodlots surrounding Colony Farm. Capture rates peak after the breeding season when juveniles and adults disperse from the wooded perimeter to forage in the more open old-field habitat where we band.

Molt Summary:

PF: HY incomplete; PB: AHY incomplete-complete; PA absent.

Preformative molt includes no to some inner, lesser and med covs, and all PP and rects, but usually no primary coverts, gr coverts or SS.

2nd PB usually includes all all wing covs, primaries and rectrices, but only 1-5 outer pp covs.

Subsequent PBs, from 1-5 SS can be retained. A variable number of PP covs can be retained during subsequent PBs but these molts are often complete.

Woodpeckers can be aged beyond the maximum after second year designation of most passerines.

Hatching year (HY) woodpeckers normally retain all of their juvenal primary coverts in the preformative molt.

Notice the primary coverts of this HY male HAWO in August and that all feathers in this group are of the same generation (retained juvenal).