• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Bird Eden

Bird Eden

  • Home
  • About
  • Contact
  • Articles

25 Facts About Hairy Woodpeckers That’ll Leave Your Jaw Dropped

The hairy woodpecker is commonly seen, not only in the wilderness but also in our backyards. If you're interested in more hairy woodpecker facts, then look no further. BirdEden will give you all related information, such as the size, characteristics, and diet of the hairy woodpecker, besides other interesting facts.

Home / Uncategorized / 25 Facts About Hairy Woodpeckers That’ll Leave Your Jaw Dropped
25 Facts About the Hairy Woodpecker

The hairy woodpecker is commonly seen, not only in the wilderness but also in our backyards. If you’re interested in more hairy woodpecker facts, then look no further. BirdEden will give you all related information, such as the size, characteristics, and diet of the hairy woodpecker, besides other interesting facts.

Did You Know?

Woodpeckers can tap on wood at a speed of 100 blows per minute!

Hairy woodpeckers are a commonly occurring species of woodpeckers found throughout the United States and some parts of Canada and Mexico. Like other woodpeckers, they mostly feed on insects that seek refuge within dead wood, by digging holes in it. This action of ‘pecking’ or tapping on wood stems is what gives all woodpeckers their name.

Would you like to write for us? Well, we're looking for good writers who want to spread the word. Get in touch with us and we'll talk...

Let's Work Together!

Hairy woodpeckers are common in almost all kinds of forest habitats. However, they also frequent urban surroundings in search of grains and suet commonly found in backyard feeders. Their scientific name is Picoides villosus.

They closely resemble another common species – the downy woodpecker. Despite having a similar color pattern, the fact is that, hairy woodpeckers are much larger and even weigh twice as much as their cousins. One chief difference is the length of their beaks; the downy’s beak is half the length of its head, while the hairy’s beak is as long as its head.

Another misunderstood part is the significance of the hairy woodpecker. Some people mistakenly think that these birds are pests, a reputation partly magnified by their tapping of wooden house sidings, which some may find annoying. In fact, there is rarely a bird so beneficial to mankind as the hairy woodpecker. This, and other facts about the hairy woodpecker, follows.

Appearance

Male Hairy Woodpecker

Male Hairy Woodpecker

▶ Color

Hairy woodpeckers are a mixture of black and white. They have thread-like white feathers in the middle of their black backs, which gives them the name ‘hairy’. The head has two white stripes. Males can be distinguished from females by a red patch at the back of their head. Their underparts are white to cream colored, while the beaks are grayish to black in color.

Female Hairy Woodpecker

Female Hairy Woodpecker

▶ Size and Shape

This is a powerful, medium-sized bird with a square head, and a straight beak ending with a chisel-like tip, which is as long as the head itself. Long tail feathers are used to support the bird while standing. The striped head along with an upright posture gives it a ‘soldierly’ look.

Length: 8 – 11 inches
Wingspan: 15 – 17 inches
Weight: 1.5 – 3 ounces

Diet

▶ It eats wood-boring beetles and their larvae, along with other insects like caterpillars, millipedes, cockroaches, ants, grasshoppers, beetles, flies, and also spiders. 75% of the hairy woodpecker diet comprises such insects.

Feeding

Feeding

▶ The vegetarian portion of their diet includes sunflower seeds, grains, nuts, peanut butter, and suet from bird feeders. They consume sap from tree-stems, and are also spotted tapping at sugarcane to lick the sweet juice oozing out.

Would you like to write for us? Well, we're looking for good writers who want to spread the word. Get in touch with us and we'll talk...

Let's Work Together!

▶ On rare occasions they eat wild fruits and berries.

▶ They are beneficial to humans as they kill insects that are destructive to orchards, forests, crops, and shade trees.

Habitat

They are found throughout North America. They mostly occur in forested areas, especially at sites of recent forest fires. They generally prefer deciduous and pine forests. As already mentioned, they are also found in suburban backyards near bird feeders.

At a Feeder

At a Feeder

Behavior

▶ The hairy woodpecker taps at the tree trunk, until it detects an insect tunnel because of the difference in resonance of sound. It then chisels away the wood and removes the insect using its long, barb-like tongue.

Tapping on Wood

Tapping on Wood

▶ Woodpeckers move up the tree in a movement called ‘hitching’, which involves moving in short leaps.

▶ Its call sounds like a shrill ‘peek’. It creates a sound like a rolling drum when tapping at wood.

▶ This drumming sound is used while locating a new nest site and also while announcing their territory. They also select ‘drumming posts’, tapping on which creates a louder sound. This may be an old telephone pole, hollow branch, or even a chimney.

▶ When fighting, it will raise its wings at a 45-degree angle and raise its head upward, while making shrill cries. This can sometimes be seen even during flight.

Reproduction

▶ Hairy woodpeckers are monogamous, i.e., they have one mate for a period of 4 years. Mating occurs three months before nesting. Both sexes attract each other by drumming. Sometimes, mating pairs can be seen flying around each other near trees.

▶ Their nest has a two-inch opening and is around 10 inches deep, and gets wider toward the end.

▶ Both the male and the female take turns to watch over their 4 eggs, in shifts.

▶ The chicks are naked, i.e., without feathers and have red patches on their foreheads. They leave the nests about 28 days after hatching, though their parents continue to feed them for sometime after this period.

Status and Threats

▶ The hairy woodpecker is regarded as a species of ‘Least Concern (LC)’ on the IUCN Red List of Endangered Animals.

▶ Between the years 1966 to 2010, their population increased by just 1%.

▶ The rapid fragmentation of forests and competition for nest sites from the European starling are the biggest threats facing this species.

Interesting Facts

✦ Hairy woodpeckers are shy creatures and are usually found in pairs.

✦ Unlike downy woodpeckers which forage for food on thin, fragile branches, hairy woodpeckers always frequent thick, strong branches and stems.

✦ They also follow pileated woodpeckers when they chisel holes in trees. When the pileated woodpecker leaves the hole, the hairy woodpecker arrives to check the hole for any insects that may have missed. In fact, the hairy woodpecker emerges even when it hears the sound of a pileated woodpecker tapping wood!

✦ The longest recorded lifespan of a captive hairy woodpecker was 15 years, 11 months, though its life is much lesser in the wild.

✦ Two of the smallest species of hairy woodpeckers―Picoides villosus piger and Picoides villosus maynardi―are found in the Bahamas.

✦ The vigorous tapping on tree trunks does not injure the woodpecker, because it has strong head and neck muscles. Tufts of feathers near the beak prevent particles from entering its nostrils.

As we have seen, hairy woodpeckers benefit mankind by protecting our crops and orchards from marauding insects. Though they are not at risk of extinction, hairy woodpeckers are hunted by hawks and eagles, some of which are endangered. This should be reason enough for us to protect this magnificent bird, because when we do this, we save the lives of countless of other creatures that depend on it for survival.

Like it? Share it!

  • Share
  • Tweet
  • LinkedIn
  • Email
« Previous Post
Next Post »

Category iconUncategorized

Get Updates Right to Your Inbox

Sign up to receive the latest and greatest articles from our site automatically each week (give or take)...right to your inbox.
Blog Updates

Further Insights

condor
Endangered Birds in North America
May 10, 2020
flock of flamingos
Time to Learn Some Fun Flamingo Facts
May 10, 2020
crows
Crows: The Most Intelligent Bird
April 22, 2020

Primary Sidebar

Search

Latest Articles

condor

Endangered Birds in North America

flock of flamingos

Time to Learn Some Fun Flamingo Facts

crows

Crows: The Most Intelligent Bird

snowy owl

Interesting Facts about Snowy Owls: Harry Potter’s Pet

Exploring the website?

Our site includes quite a bit of content, so if you're having an issue finding what you're looking for, go on ahead and use that search feature there!

Footer

We hope you enjoy this website. We've created informative articles that you can come back to again and again when you have questions or want to learn more!
  • Facebook
  • RSS

Copyright © Bird Eden & Buzzle.com, Inc.
6789 Quail Hill Pkwy, Suite 211 Irvine CA 92603

  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Use
  • Contact Us
This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. Cookie settingsAccept
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled

Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.

Non-necessary

Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.