Rondeau Ric

  Downy Delivery, absolutely fresh, right to your nest. A 5 star rating is a really feather in his cap. Downy woodpecker, Rondeau Provincial Park, Ontario, Canada, June 11, 2025. Dryobates pubescens Woodpeckers don’t sing songs, but they drum loudly against pieces of wood or metal to achieve the same effect. People sometimes think this drumming is part of the birds’ feeding habits, but it isn’t. In fact, feeding birds make surprisingly little noise even when they’re digging vigorously into wood.

 Not a woodpecker species we see at the water very often. We have had various ones bath but not drink. Rondeau Provincial Park, Ontario, Canada, November 15, 2024 Dryobates pubescens.  Woodpeckers don’t sing songs, but they drum loudly against pieces of wood or metal to achieve the same effect. People sometimes think this drumming is part of the birds’ feeding habits, but it isn’t. In fact, feeding birds make surprisingly little noise even when they’re digging vigorously into wood.

  Adult downy woodpecker feeding a recently fledged chick. Rondeau Provincial Park, Ontario , Canada, June 8, 2024. Dryobates pubescens.  The oldest known Downy Woodpecker was a male and at least 11 years, 11 months old when he was recaptured and rereleased in 1996 during banding operations in California. He had been banded in the same state in 1985.

 It poured sunshine all day so I sat out to see what would come in. Nothing special but I like the feisty little guys. Rondeau Provincial Park,Ontario, Canada, April 13, 2024. Dryobates pubesce ns.  Woodpeckers don’t sing songs, but they drum loudly against pieces of wood or metal to achieve the same effect. People sometimes think this drumming is part of the birds’ feeding habits, but it isn’t. In fact, feeding birds make surprisingly little noise even when they’re digging vigorously into wood. source- allaboutbirds-org.

Downy woodpecker feeding young, Rondeau Provincial Park, June 27, 2023. Dryobates pubescens. Downy Woodpeckers have been discovered nesting inside the walls of buildings.

Rondeau Provincial Park, Feb 3, 2023. Dryobates pubescens The Downy Woodpecker eats foods that larger woodpeckers cannot reach, such as insects living on or in the stems of weeds. You may see them hammering at goldenrod galls to extract the fly larvae inside.

Rondeau Provincial Park, Ontario, Canada, Oct 3, 2021. Hairy woodpecker - Dryobates villosus Downy woodpecker - Dryobates pubescens Hairy and Downy woodpeckers occur together throughout most of their ranges. The Downy Woodpecker uses smaller branches while the Hairy Woodpecker tends to spend more time on trunks.

A ruby-throated hummingbird and a downy woodpecker are regular visitors to the oriole nectar feeder. Just not usually at the same time. Rondeau Provincial Park, Ontario, Canada, June 30, 2021. Dryobates pubescens Archilochus colubris

Rondeau Provincial Park, Ontario, Canada, Mar 8, 2021. In the yard on a dying ash tree- emerald ash borer, the stared at each other from opposite sides of the tree. The larger of two look alikes, 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. Downy's bills are small , almost thorn-like. Downy - Dryobates pubescens Hairy - Dryobates villosus source - Source -Cornell Lab of Ornithology- All About Birds

First time I captured a Hairy and downy woodpecker side by side. You can see the difference in the body and bill size.

Downy Woodpecker, June 13, 2020, Rondeau Provincial Park, Ontario, Canada. Lucky timing on this shot, of course if you take enough images you will get a few like this. Dryobates pubescens Downy Woodpeckers have been discovered nesting inside the walls of buildings. Does anyone know how to change the size of the photo in the new Blogger?

Downy woodpecker, Rondeau Provincial Park, June 26, 2017. Dryobates pubescens The Downy Woodpecker eats foods that larger woodpeckers cannot reach, such as insects living on or in the stems of weeds. You may see them hammering at goldenrod galls to extract the fly larvae inside. source - https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Downy_Woodpecker

Downy woodpecker, Rondeau Provincial Park, Ontario, Canada, Jan 9, 2019. A visitor to our suet log in the backyard. Dryobates pubescens The Downy Woodpecker eats foods that larger woodpeckers cannot reach, such as insects living on or in the stems of weeds. You may see them hammering at goldenrod galls to extract the fly larvae inside. source - https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Downy_Woodpecker/

A common visitor to the yard. Picoides pubescens Woodpeckers don’t sing songs, but they drum loudly against pieces of wood or metal to achieve the same effect. People sometimes think this drumming is part of the birds’ feeding habits, but it isn’t. In fact, feeding birds make surprisingly little noise even when they’re digging vigorously into wood.

Downy woodpeckers are frequent visitors to the suet and peanut feeders in the yard. This one seems to be checking on the peanut feeder. Picoides pubescens The Downy Woodpecker eats foods that larger woodpeckers cannot reach, such as insects living on or in the stems of weeds. You may see them hammering at goldenrod galls to extract the fly larvae inside.

There are lots of young downy woodpeckers about and they are not into sharing. Multiples were fine when mom was doing the feeding but now that they are foraging on their own there are a few territorial disputes. Picoides pubescens The Downy Woodpecker eats foods that larger woodpeckers cannot reach, such as insects living on or in the stems of weeds. You may see them hammering at goldenrod galls to extract the fly larvae inside. Woodpeckers don’t sing songs, but they drum loudly against pieces of wood or metal to achieve the same effect. People sometimes think this drumming is part of the birds’ feeding habits, but it isn’t. In fact, feeding birds make surprisingly little noise even when they’re digging vigorously into wood.

The standoff. , a photo by ricmcarthur on Flickr. I don't know what caused these two downy woodpeckers to go beak to beak in a stare down, but they kept at it for about 1 minute. Bobbing their heads, thrusting their bills forward and puffing up their wings the appeared to be trying to intimidate each other. It was resolved peacefully when one flew off. Picoides pubescens In winter Downy Woodpeckers are frequent members of mixed species flocks. Advantages of flocking include having to spend less time watching out for predators and better luck finding food from having other birds around. Downy Woodpeckers have been discovered nesting inside the walls of buildings.

Stand off , a photo by ricmcarthur on Flickr. These two downy woodpeckers both wanted to go to the suet feeder. They started posturing, bobbing up and down spreading and snapping their wings in an effort to drive the other away. This went on for about two minutes before one finally left. Scientific stuff Picoides pubescens 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. Go to www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/downy_woodpecker/id for more information. Photo taken at Rondeau Provincial Park, Ontario, Canada.