Bird Profile
Downy Woodpecker
The smallest woodpecker in North America and the one most likely to be on your suet. The bill is the mark that separates it from the Hairy, and it works on a single bird with nothing to compare.
The short answer
- Black and white, checkered wings, a white stripe down the back, and a red patch on the back of the head on males only. About 6.5 inches (17 cm), roughly sparrow-sized.
- The reliable mark against the Hairy Woodpecker is bill length compared with the depth of the bird's own head: a downy's bill is markedly shorter than its head is deep, roughly a third to a half of it.
- Downy's white outer tail feathers carry black spots or bars. A hairy's outer tail feathers are plain white.
- Suet is the single food that brings them in, with peanuts and black oil sunflower close behind.
- They excavate a fresh cavity each spring and roost in cavities alone every night of the year, so standing dead wood matters as much as food.
At a glance
- Scientific name
- Dryobates pubescens
- Length
- 5.5 to 6.7 in (14 to 17 cm)
- Wingspan
- 9.8 to 11.8 in (25 to 30 cm)
- Weight
- 0.7 to 1.0 oz (21 to 28 g)
- Range
- Most of the US and Canada south of the tundra, absent from the driest Southwest. Year-round resident.
- Favorite foods
- Suet, black oil sunflower, peanuts, sunflower hearts
- Best feeder
- Suet cage, peanut feeder, tube or hopper
- At feeders
- Year-round, several visits a day, heaviest in winter
The Downy Woodpecker (Dryobates pubescens) is the smallest woodpecker in North America, about 6.5 inches (17 cm) long, black and white with checkered wings, a white stripe down the center of the back and, on males, a small red patch at the back of the head. It is also the woodpecker most people get at a feeder, because it is common, tame and happy in small trees.
The one identification problem it presents is the Hairy Woodpecker, which has almost the same plumage in a much larger body. The mark that settles it is the bill, judged against the bird's own head rather than against your memory of size.
This profile covers that comparison in detail, where and when downies turn up, exactly what they eat, the suet and peanut setup that works, the drumming that starts on gutters in February, and what they need in order to nest.
How to identify a Downy Woodpecker#
The plumage pattern is shared by both small black-and-white woodpeckers: a black crown, a white stripe over and under the eye, a broad white stripe down the middle of the back, black wings heavily spotted with white, and white underparts. Males carry a red patch on the nape; females have none. Juveniles of both sexes may show messy red on the crown.
What is specific to the downy is proportion. The bird looks small-billed and slightly toy-like, with a rounded head and a short, fine bill that seems too small for a woodpecker. It works thin twigs, weed stems, goldenrod galls, cattails and corn stalks, perching sideways on stems no thicker than a pencil.
Voice is a good backup. The common call is a soft, flat pik, gentler than a hairy's. The whinny call is a run of notes that descends in pitch as it goes, a useful contrast with the hairy's level rattle.
Downy or Hairy: use the bill against the head#
Both species occur across most of North America, and they overlap in habitat, so this comparison comes up constantly. Work through it in this order.
1. Bill length against head depth. This is the reliable mark and the one that works on a lone bird. Look at the bill, then at the depth of the head from crown to throat at the same point. A downy's bill is markedly shorter than the head is deep, roughly a third to a half of that depth. A hairy's bill is roughly as long as the head is deep, and looks like a serious chisel.
2. Overall size. A downy is about 6.5 inches (17 cm) and weighs around an ounce (25 g). A hairy is about 9.5 inches (24 cm) and weighs two to three times as much. Size is obvious when the two are together and unreliable when a bird is alone at distance, which is why the bill comes first.
3. Outer tail feathers. A downy's white outer tail feathers are marked with black spots or bars. A hairy's are plain white. You need a spread tail or a clear view from below, but when you get it the mark is decisive.
| Feature | Downy Woodpecker | Hairy Woodpecker |
|---|---|---|
| Bill vs head depth | Markedly shorter, about a third to a half | About equal, a long chisel |
| Length | 5.5 to 6.7 in (14 to 17 cm) | 7.1 to 10.2 in (18 to 26 cm) |
| Weight | 0.7 to 1.0 oz (21 to 28 g) | 1.4 to 3.4 oz (40 to 95 g) |
| Outer tail feathers | White with black spots or bars | Plain white |
| Male nape patch | Usually a single red patch | Often divided into two by black |
| Call | Soft, flat pik | Sharp, loud peek |
| Whinny or rattle | Descends in pitch | Stays level in pitch |
| At feeders | Common, tame, frequent | Less frequent, warier |
Judge the bill on the bird, not on the memory
A lone woodpecker gives you no scale, so "it looked small" is not evidence. Bill length against the depth of that same bird's head is a ratio, and a ratio does not care about distance, lens or lighting. If you can see the head clearly, you can name the bird.
Where and when you will see one#
Downy Woodpeckers live almost everywhere there are trees: deciduous woods, mixed forest, willow and cottonwood along streams, orchards, city parks, suburbs and hedgerows. They tolerate small and fragmented woodlots far better than hairies do, which is why the small woodpecker in a subdivision is nearly always a downy.
They are year-round residents and do not migrate. In fall and winter they attach themselves to mixed flocks of chickadees, titmice and nuthatches and travel with them, which is why a downy often appears at your feeder within a minute of the flock arriving.
Feeder use runs all year and peaks from November through March. Individual birds visit repeatedly through the day and often work the same route between suet feeders and trees.
What Downy Woodpeckers eat#
The natural diet is roughly three quarters animal matter: wood-boring beetle larvae, ants, caterpillars, aphids and scale insects, taken from bark and from inside stems, galls and dead twigs. The remaining quarter is plant material, mainly berries, acorns and grains.
Because they are small, downies exploit food larger woodpeckers cannot reach. A downy will hang from a goldenrod gall and dig out the larva inside, or work up a dead weed stem, which is not something a hairy can do.
At feeders, the ranking is consistent:
- Suet, by a wide margin the most effective food.
- Shelled peanuts, taken heavily, especially in cold weather.
- Black oil sunflower and sunflower hearts, taken steadily from any feeder they can cling to.
- Peanut butter mixes and homemade suet, useful in cold weather but soft in warm.
The feeder setup that works#
A suet feeder is the whole answer, and where you hang it matters as much as what is in it.
Mount the cage against a tree trunk or on a pole at about 5 to 6 feet (1.5 to 1.8 m). Downies approach along bark, so a feeder attached to a trunk gets found faster than one swinging in the open. A tail prop, the extended panel below the cage, lets the bird brace its stiff tail the way it does on a tree and makes longer feeding bouts possible.
A peanut feeder of whole or halved kernels is the strong second choice, and downies use mesh tubes comfortably. For seed, any tube or hopper works, since a downy will cling to a port without needing a perch.
Go upside down if starlings arrive
An upside-down suet feeder, where the cake is accessible only from below, is used without hesitation by downies, hairies, nuthatches and chickadees, and mostly defeats European starlings, which struggle to feed while hanging. It is the cheapest fix for a suet feeder that is being emptied in a day.
Suet in hot weather
Rendered suet cakes soften above roughly 80°F (27°C), and soft fat can foul the face and breast feathers of a bird that presses into it. In summer switch to a no-melt dough cake or take suet down entirely and offer peanuts instead, as covered in summer bird feeding.
Drumming, and the bird on your gutter#
Drumming is a fast burst of hammering used as a signal, not a way of finding food. Both sexes drum, mostly from late winter into spring, to claim territory and attract mates, and they deliberately choose resonant surfaces. A downy's drum is shorter and slower than a hairy's, and it comes in repeated bursts through the morning.
Which is why the bird ends up on your house. Metal gutters, downspouts, flashing, chimney caps, vent covers and satellite dishes are all louder than any tree, and a woodpecker drumming on metal is not damaging it. The behavior fades once nesting starts.
Actual excavation into wood siding is a different problem, usually a search for insects or an attempt at a roost cavity, and it is far more often a larger woodpecker than a downy. Foraging tactics for the group are in how to attract woodpeckers.
Nesting and roosting cavities#
Downy Woodpeckers excavate a fresh nest cavity every spring, usually in a dead limb or a dead stub, often in wood softened by fungal decay. Both members of the pair dig, and the entrance is a neat round hole a little over an inch (about 3 cm) across.
The cavity is unlined except for a bed of woodchips. Clutches run about 3 to 8 white eggs, incubation takes roughly 12 days, and the young leave the nest 18 to 21 days after hatching. One brood a year is usual.
Cavities matter twelve months a year, not just in spring. Every downy roosts alone in a cavity each night, and they excavate roost holes in fall specifically for that purpose. A yard stripped of snags and dead wood can feed downies and still hold none overnight. Nest boxes are a poor substitute here, though a box stuffed with wood shavings occasionally serves as a roost; sizing is in nest boxes.
Population and outlook#
The Downy Woodpecker is common and widespread, and its overall numbers have been reasonably stable, with modest declines in some regions. It is not a species of conservation concern, and it adapts to suburbs better than most woodpeckers.
The main local pressure is tidiness: removing dead limbs, snags and standing dead trees takes away nest and roost sites even where food is abundant. Where a dead branch can be left safely, it is doing more for the birds than a feeder.
A setup that keeps downies coming#
- A suet cage with a tail prop, mounted on a trunk or pole at 5 to 6 feet (1.5 to 1.8 m).
- An upside-down suet feeder if starlings find the first one.
- Whole shelled peanuts in a mesh feeder as the second food.
- Sunflower in any clingable feeder, which they will use between suet visits.
- No-melt dough above 80°F (27°C), or no suet at all in high summer.
- A dead limb or snag left standing wherever it is safe, for nesting and for winter roosting.
Get suet right and the downy usually arrives first, with the red-bellied woodpecker and the hairy following later.
Frequently asked questions#
What is the difference between a Downy and a Hairy Woodpecker?
Compare the bill with the depth of the bird's own head. A Downy Woodpecker's bill is markedly shorter than its head is deep, about a third to a half of that depth, and looks like a small chip stuck to the face. A Hairy Woodpecker's bill is roughly as long as its head is deep, a heavy chisel. Size backs this up: a downy is about 6.5 inches (17 cm), a hairy about 9.5 inches (24 cm) and two to three times the weight. Downy also shows black spots or bars on its white outer tail feathers, while a hairy's are plain white.
What do Downy Woodpeckers eat at feeders?
Suet first, then shelled peanuts, black oil sunflower and sunflower hearts. Away from feeders roughly three quarters of the diet is insects, mostly beetle larvae, ants and caterpillars taken from bark and from inside stems and galls, with the rest made up of seeds, berries and acorns.
Why is a woodpecker drumming on my gutter?
Drumming is a territorial and courtship signal, not feeding, and metal is loud, so gutters, flashing and chimney caps get used as amplifiers. It peaks from late winter into spring and usually stops once nesting is underway. The bird is not damaging anything on a metal surface. Excluding it means covering or padding the resonant spot, since scaring it off one gutter simply moves it to another.
Do Downy Woodpeckers migrate?
No, not in any regular sense. They hold the same general area year-round across their range, and the birds at your suet in January are usually the ones that nested nearby. Some northern individuals, especially young birds, wander short distances in fall, but there is no organized migration.
Will Downy Woodpeckers use a nest box?
Rarely, and only if it is packed with wood shavings so the pair can excavate it themselves. Downies almost always dig a fresh cavity in a dead limb or a dead stub each spring and prefer to do so. They are more likely to use a box as a winter roost than as a nest. Leaving a safe dead branch standing is worth more than any box.