Downy Woodpecker

Description:

Downy Woodpeckers are small woodpecker species. They have a black and white dorsal feathers speckled with white checkered spots along their wings and white undersides. Their head is striped with black horizontal bands across the eyes and top of the head. Males are distinguished by a red patch at the crown and back of the head. As with many woodpecker species, the Downy Woodpecker is a noisy bird with a repeated shrilling chirp and loud pecking on trees.

Habitat:

Typically found throughout North American woodlands the Downy Woodpecker can be seen hopping around tree trucks and ducking in and around tree branches looking for plant galls. This individual was found within a Ponderosa Pine dominated forest at around 2100 m.

Notes:

This forested area is located within the Sugarite Canyon State Park which had suffered major devastation from the 2011 track fire. The fire burned massive amounts of trees and ground vegetation which forced the park to close for several months. The severity of the track fire is still seen today. Approximately 27,000 acres of surrounding land was burned, fish populations were completely decimated in the park's lakes and rivers due to massive amounts of ash. It has since recovered quite a bit and is full of green life; though signs of massive amounts of burned and felled Ponderosa Pines still haunts the area. Despite the obvious destruction I thoroughly enjoyed my time hiking through the park's mountains and was very impressed with abundant presence of wildlife.