New Bird at My Feeder!

Got a new bird just a few minutes ago. He bullied one of my female cardinals.

Can’t figure out if it’s a downy or hairy woodpecker.

Any ideas?

3 Likes

Male Downy

2 Likes

Thank you! The downy and hairy look almost identical and the difference is bird size, beak size, and whether there are black spots on the white part of the tail. I just couldn’t tell from the video. :joy:

The red patch on the back of a Hairy is split into 2 patches surrounded by white and a black stripe between (follow link for pics):

Downy is just one larger red patch:

j1b13f9f45c0G6e11

1 Like

Oh good to know! That wasn’t mentioned on ebird when I was trying to figure it out!