Hairy Woodpecker
Dryobates villosus · Woodpeckers
Banding codeHAWO
Keys to identifying it
1Size & shape
About 9 in long.
2Color pattern
- Black and white with a white back stripe
- Long, chisel bill nearly as long as its head
- Clean white outer tail feathers
3Habitat & season
Mature forests, burned areas, neighborhood trees
In northern Utah: year-round.
Seen most often in July, August and October.
Share of the region’s research-grade iNaturalist bird observations each month, scaled to this bird’s peak. Highlighted bars are its peak months.
4Voice
A loud, sharp 'peek!' and a long rattle.
“PEEK! · a ringing rattle”
National Park Service by Rocky Mountain National Park · Public domain
Know it
- Its bill is nearly as long as its head — the key difference from the look-alike Downy.
- Flocks to recently burned forests to feed on wood-boring beetle larvae.
- Its call is a sharp, loud 'peek!'
- Lives year-round from mountain forests down to valley neighborhoods.
Often confused with
Downy Woodpecker
Red-naped Sapsucker
Northern Flicker- American Three-toed Woodpecker
From iNaturalist identification data for northern Utah.
From Wikipedia
The hairy woodpecker is a medium-sized woodpecker that is found over a large area of North America. It is approximately 250 mm (9.8 in) in length with a 380 mm (15 in) wingspan. With an estimated population in 2020 of almost nine million individuals, the hairy woodpecker is listed by the IUCN as a species of least concern. The species was previously placed in the genus Dryobates.
Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0