nigelwaring's Journal

Date: February 8th 2019
Time: 12:00 - 4:00 pm
Location: Proctor Maple Research Center
Habitat: Open hard woods
Weather: Sunny, 35 degrees with no wind, turning to cloudy, 30 degrees and high winds

While on this walk I saw two downy woodpeckers. Woodpeckers can be identified by a combination of a few characteristics. The first being the long narrow beak that they use to drill into trees to find grubs and insects to eat. Woodpeckers in Vermont also are black, white and red in color. Size varies by species and can range from sparrow size to crow size.

Once I had identified the birds as woodpeckers, I had to determine which species it was. Two species of woodpecker in Vermont are similar in size and markings. These two species are Downy and Hairy Woodpeckers. These two species are small, about the size of a sparrow. The key to telling these species apart lies in the beaks. The beak of the Downy Woodpecker is a shorter than the Hairy Woodpecker, but this is hard to tell unless you have both species next to each other. The easiest way is to look at how long the beak is compared to the head of the woodpecker. If the beak is only as long as 1/3 of the head then it is a Downy Woodpecker. This was the case with both woodpeckers that I saw.

Woodpeckers are also very cool to watch in flight as they have a interesting flight pattern. They use the ballistic flight type which involves large ascents and descents while in flight. This pattern forms a parabolic motion in flight with high peaks and low valleys. This pattern is caused by the woodpeckers flapping and then folding of the wings into the body. The flapping causes the woodpecker to rise and then tucking the wings causes it to fall. Watching this is very cool and makes it hard to track a woodpecker as it is flying through the woods.