Hairy Woodpecker, Juvenile

 

 

This Hairy Woodpecker, a juvenile, frequents the sunflower seed feeder outside our kitchen window.  When we had "street improvements" a couple of years ago, the excavations set two maples into the process of decay and dying at the top of our driveway.  There the woodpecker lives. 

I am fascinated by woodpeckers though I don't like their hole making in healthy trees.  Most woodpeckers have very long tongues (sometimes as long as four times the length of their bill). These long tongues are stored like a tape measure in twin structures that wrap around the inside perimeter of the skull.  The tip of the tongue is sticky and barbed to help them forage for insects.

This woodpecker is male.  He has a small red patch on the back of his head.  Females have no red patch.

Earlier this year, an adult Hairy Woodpeckers tapped on the metal pole on which hangs the feeder...for days.  I assume whichever male makes the loudest noise gets the female.  Since there are now juvenile woodpeckers at our feeders, he must have been successful.