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The Hairy Woodpecker is a robin-sized woodpecker, very similar to but larger than, the Downy Woodpecker. They are black and white, with unspotted white backs, and large bills. Males have a small red patch on their heads. Their stiff tails and specialized feet, with two toes pointing both forward and back, help them to climb up trees.
Algonquin Highlands’ hardwood forests are full of dead and dying trees, which are stocked with wood-dwelling insects. While attached to trees, the Hairy Woodpecker listens for insects under the bark or inside the wood. They use their chisel-like bill and barbed tongue to drill into the wood and extract prey from crevices. Destroying harmful insects like wood-boring beetles, they help to save trees. Shock-absorbing bones in the head protect them during this process.
Trees with partly dead trunks, such as the maple, also offer the Woodpecker places in which to carve out nesting cavities. They will lay around 4 white eggs in a hole in a tree. Like other woodpeckers, the Hairy Woodpecker hammers on dead tree limbs to show his territory, as well as part of his courtship ceremony. They make a sharp, distinctive peek, as well as a loud rattle, using a single pitch. The Hairy Woodpecker does not migrate, staying in the region for the winter.
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HAIRY WOODPECKER
Picoides villosus
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