The Downy mate

The Woodpecker Keeps Returning

BY JANE HIRSHFIELD

The woodpecker keeps returning
to drill the house wall.
Put a pie plate over one place, he chooses another.

There is nothing good to eat there:
he has found in the house
a resonant billboard to post his intentions,
his voluble strength as provider.

But where is the female he drums for? Where?

I ask this, who am myself the ruined siding,
the handsome red-capped bird, the missing mate.



This is an adult female, she has a black and white striped head with a white patch in middle of her back. She has remnants of beef suet, her favorite provided food, in her short, pointed bill. She's sharing the feeder with an Eastern Chickadee who may be tomorrow's blip.

Downy Woodpeckers give a checkered black-and-white impression. The black upperparts 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.

They hitch around tree limbs and trunks or drop into tall weeds to feed on galls, moving more acrobatically than our larger woodpeckers. Their rising-and-falling flight style is distinctive of many woodpeckers. In spring and summer, Downy Woodpeckers make lots of noise, both with their shrill whinnying call and by drumming on trees.

Mrs. Downy Woodpecker
The yellow feathers are actually from reflected morning light, she has white neck feathers.


Downy Woodpecker info