Bird Calls Radio Bird of the Day for Thursday, Aug. 4

The Bird Calls Radio Bird of the Day for Thursday, Aug. 4, is the downy woodpecker. It is our smallest and most common woodpecker in New England.

Everybody loves the downy woodpecker and welcomes them to their feeders _ be it seed, suet or nectar feeder. People may not be thrilled when one decides to peck at their house, but from my experiences, the bird usually moves on rather quickly.

I always seem to find downies, no matter where I am. In the woods, at the shore, in a field, in my yard _ I always see downies, thankfully. Downy woodpeckers and hairy woodpeckers are very similar except for size. Beginning birdwatchers have difficulty with the two species as, without a size reference handy, it’s hard to tell the difference. I know because I used to struggle mightily with it, too. The best way to differentiate a downy from a hairy, in my opinion, is to look at the bill. Downies have petite little bills and hairies have a more substantial bill.

Male and female downies can be differentiated from each other by the red on the male’s head.

Be sure to check out Bird Calls every Saturday from 3 to 4 p.m. on WSTC/WNLK AM1400/1350 (in S. CT and nearby NY) or www.wstcwnlk.com from anywhere in the world (where there’s Internet access, that is.) Thanks for checking in.