Pam’s Perspective
Pam Otto is the Manager of Nature Programs and Interpretive Services for the St. Charles Park District
Although the word “hairy” isn’t itself inherently bad, it’s often used to describe something that is less than ideal. A hairy situation typically is one that’s turned treacherous. A hairy problem can be tricky to solve. And a hairy sink…well that’s just gross.
A hairy woodpecker, on the other hand, is darn cool.
Here in Kane County, hairy woodpeckers, a.k.a. hairies, are definitely a minority when compared to their smaller cousins the downy woodpeckers, or downies. Should you be lucky enough to spot a hairy, you certainly want to take a second look.
Both hairies and downies belong to the genus Picoides, a name derived from the Latin word picus, which means—get this—woodpecker. Both species are predominantly black and white, with checkered wings and a white stripe on their backs. And the males of both birds have a splash of red on the back of the head.
The difference lies in their size. Downies are the smallest of our local woodpeckers, measuring about 6 ½ in. in length, while hairies are 9 ½ in. or more—like a downy on steroids. (Food addict that I am, I like to relate the two species as hot dogs. Downies are about the same size as a regular Portillo’s dog, while hairies are more like the jumbos you can get for about 50 cents more.)
You’d think this size difference would make distinguishing the species a snap, but a few inches aren’t much when the bird in question is 50 feet away and pecking its way around a massive oak tree.
Probably the easiest way to tell downies and hairies apart is to look at the bill relative to the rest of the body. On the downy, the bill is small, almost like a thorn poking out of the front of the bird’s head. The hairy’s beak, by contrast, is about as long as the head itself.
I was reminded of this difference just the other day when I saw, for the first time in several months, a hairy woodpecker in the Native Plant Garden at Pottawatomie Park in St. Charles.
I say saw, but I actually heard the bird first. It was determinedly rapping on a dead branch in a tree close to the river, picking away at the loose bark and digging for larvae and other treats embedded in the wood. (This hunt-and-peck foraging behavior is decidedly different from the drumming woodpeckers are famous for. Listen for drumming on hollow branches and gutters next month, when woodpeckers of all species begin to drum to declare territories in preparation for spring breeding.)
About the same time I pinned down which tree the sound was coming from, the bird hopped from one branch to another, and I was able to see the red on the back of the head. Aha! A male.
It took another minute or so of watching before I was able to see the bill and note its large size. Right about then the bird noticed he was being watched. For a few moments he stared back. Who knows? Maybe he was sizing up me and my beak. But then, just that quick, he flew off. I watched as his body rose and dipped in the undulating flight pattern typical of woodpeckers, then I lost him in the trees along the edge of Pottawatomie’s golf course.
This week’s hairy sighting got me to thinking…how is the species fairing in our area? According to Kane County Audubon’s Christmas Bird Count data, four individuals were spotted during the 2011 count; by comparison, birders counted 49 downies. Looking at numbers for the past six years, downies have outnumbered hairies by a ratio of roughly 8:1. There was a similar trend in KCA’s 40 years of Spring Bird Count data, with birders sighting an average of about 70 downies versus nine hairies per year.
Perhaps the main reason for this disparity again relates back to the size difference between downies and hairies. Small and compact, downy woodpeckers can forage on many different types of plants, including those with herbaceous stems. But the hunky hairies need to hunt on woody trunks and branches that can support their weight; hence their distribution is determined by the size and quality of woodland habitat available.
What I’m wondering is, how will hairies fare in the coming years, now that the emerald ash borer has become established in Kane County? Food in the form of EAB larvae is unfortunately plentiful right now. And both downy and hairy woodpeckers are important predators of this introduced pest, with hairies maybe having an edge due to their larger bills.
But one EAB management technique involves the use of insecticides that the ash trees absorb systemically. How will these chemicals affect the woodpeckers feeding on EAB larvae in treated trees? Everyone I’ve asked says it’s too soon to tell.
At any rate, there seems to be no cause for alarm right now. Although not present in great numbers, hairy woodpeckers’ status appears stable. Like cucumber slices on a hot dog, they’re unusual but not impossible to find.
Now that we’ve got some snow to provide a little color contrast, woodpeckers in general should be easier to spot. If you see a black and white bird with checkerboard wings making its way along a trunk or branch, try to figure out if it’s “regular” or “jumbo” sized. And see if you can catch a glimpse of the bill. With any luck at all, you just might find yourself in situation that’s—say it with me—Hairy.
Neither particularly hairy nor downy, Pam Otto is the manager of nature programs and interpretive services for the St. Charles Park District. She can be reached 630-513-4346 or potto@stcparks.org.