Downy Woodpecker

Dryobates pubescens · Woodpeckers

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Downy Woodpecker, female

Constitution Marsh, 17 October 2026

A female Downy Woodpecker on a lichen-covered sapling at Constitution Marsh, with no red at the back of the head where a male would have a small patch. Downies live all year across almost the whole of the continent, in woods, parks and gardens alike.

In winter the sexes divide up the tree. The males keep the smaller branches and weed stems for themselves and the females work the trunk and larger limbs; when the males were removed in one study, the females moved out onto the twigs at once.

Downy Woodpecker, yellow leaves

Constitution Marsh, 17 October 2026

A Downy Woodpecker on the trunk of a tree in yellowing leaf at Constitution Marsh. North America's smallest woodpecker lives in every kind of wood across the continent and stays all winter, feeding on insects dug from under bark.

Around a marsh in winter it has another larder. The round swellings on goldenrod stems are galls, each with a single fly larva inside, and Downies peck straight into them for it, which is why goldenrod galls with a neat hole in the side turn up all over a meadow by spring.

Downy Woodpecker

Prospect Park, 14 December 2025

A Downy Woodpecker working a snow-dusted snag in Prospect Park in December, North America's smallest woodpecker and a resident of every eastern wood and park all year. In winter it joins the chickadee flocks and follows them round the wood.

Easy to confuse with the larger Hairy Woodpecker, which wears almost identical black-and-white plumage. The reliable difference is bill length: the Downy's is noticeably shorter than the depth of its head, where the Hairy's is nearly as long as the head itself, and this one shows the short, stubby bill clearly.

Downy Woodpecker

Central Park, 21 September 2025

A Downy Woodpecker in Central Park in September, North America's smallest woodpecker and a resident of every wood, park and garden in the eastern United States all year round.

Easily confused with the larger, nearly identically patterned Hairy Woodpecker; the short, stubby bill relative to the head is the reliable difference, clearly shown here. The two are not close relatives despite the matching plumage. The Downy is thought to have evolved to look like the Hairy so that other birds treat it as the bigger, more dominant species at a feeder.