Downy Woodpecker

Description:

All male, Downy Woodpeckers

Habitat:

On trees near hanging suet baskets in our yard. Our yard is next to a frozen lake and within seven miles of: woodlands, farmlands, prairie fields and an open area of water on a creek nearby. My neighbors also heat their home with a geothermal heat pump which keeps an open area of water on our lake the size of pickup truck tire or larger.

Notes:

I put out tons of beef suet all year long but we go through the majority of it from November through May, our coldest months of the year. The beef suet is put out in baskets hung from poles or tree branches in our yard. Seeing too much "fighting over food sources" I eventually put out four hanging baskets spaced throughout our yard to help eliminate the need for fighting over resources. In the warmer months I replace the suet more frequently and keep it in the freezer to help preserve it and give it a longer "shelf life" if you will. The woodpeckers come to the suet year round and teach their babies where to find it so we frequently have baby woodpeckers begging for food from each other once the adults stop feeding them. The Downy Woodpeckers appear to be the most accepting of humans and human proximity. I've even had them land on my hand, arm and basket while refilling their feeders in the winter and the babies have landed on my head when I've been standing too close to the feeder trees in the late spring/early summer. If you spend enough time around them, you can distinguish the Woodpeckers by their voices but also by their wing flaps when flying which comes in handy when they fly in and your back is turned towards them. "-)