Hairy Woodpecker

The mountains have finally gotten some snow, so today I was able to go cross-country skiing off of the groomed paths.  On a beautiful powdery trail in the quiet woods, I saw a hairy woodpecker, Picoides villosus. 

This species visits Laramie, but I tend to see these birds more often in Medicine Bow National Forest. The bird I saw today was a female, since she was lacking the red patch that males have on their heads.  She was very busy pecking her way up a tree trunk, so it was quite difficult to get a non-blurry photo.  The above picture was the best one I managed to take.  It shows her long, pointed bill.

Downy woodpeckers have similar coloring and habitat, but are much smaller--almost dainty--and have a short, petite bill.  The Chipper Woods Bird Observatory notes that the two types of woodpeckers don't really compete with each other.  Although "both species excavate and feed on wood-boring insects...Hairy Woodpeckers tend to forage on tree trunks while Downy Woodpeckers tend to feed on tree limbs." The following photo is of a male hairy woodpecker on a cottonwood tree in town.

The Sibley Guide explains the difference in the drumming sounds of the two woodpecker species.  "The drum of Hairy Woodpecker is extremely fast and buzzing, with at least 25 taps per second, but has long pauses of 20 seconds or more between drums.  Downy Woodpecker drums at a slower rate, only about 15 taps per second, and drums frequently, often with pauses of only a few seconds between each drum."  I find it pretty amazing that these birds sound different enough in their intense pecking for me to possibly be able to tell them apart.

Birdsamore.com made another interesting point:  "like all woodpeckers, they have nostril bristles that act as filters from all the sawdust they create."  I had never thought about the dust that woodpeckers must be right on top of, but it makes sense, especially if you look at the next picture of the mess a bird seems to have made in town!