Female Downy Woodpecker

This looks like a female Downy Woodpecker intently looking for invertebrates, possibly under that bark. Though this might be standard woodpecker habitat, Downys are also the area woodpecker most likely to eat out of goldenrod galls, pecking a hole in them and gobbling up the larva inside.

The main way to tell the males from the females is that the males will have a smallish red patch on the back of their heads, though from some angles it can be hard to see (like here and here). (In the picture below, I'm confident there's a good enough look at the back of the head to say this is a female.)

January 26, 2023 at Duke Farms
Photo 263364843, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)


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