Length--9 to 10 inches. About the size of the robin.
Male--Black and white above, white beneath. White stripe down the
back, composed of long hair-like feathers. Brightred band on
the nape of neck. Wings striped and dashed with black and
white. Outer tail feathers white, without bars. White stripe
about eyes and on sides of the head.
Female--Without the red band on head, and body more brownish than
that of the male.
Range--Eastern parts of United States, from the Canadian border
to the Carolinas.
Migrations--Resident throughout its range.
The bill of the woodpecker is a hammering tool, well fitted for its work. Its
mission in life is to rid the trees of insects, which hide beneath the bark,
and with this end in view, the bird is seen clinging to the trunks and
branches of trees through fair and wintry weather, industriously scanning
every inch for the well-known signs of the boring worm or destructive fly.
In the autumn the male begins to excavate his winter quarters, carrying or
throwing out the chips, by which this good workman is known, with his beak,
while the female may make herself cosey or not, as she chooses, in an
abandoned hole. About her comfort he seems shamefully unconcerned. Intent only
on his own, he drills a perfectly round hole, usually on the underside of a
limb where neither snow nor wind can harm him, and digs out a horizontal
tunnel in the dry, brittle wood in the very heart of the tree, before turning
downward into the deep, pear-shaped chamber, where he lives in selfish
solitude. But when the nesting season comes, how devoted he is temporarily to
the mate he has neglected and even abused through the winter! Will she never
learn that after her clear-white eggs are laid and her brood raised he will
relapse into the savage and forget all his tender wiles?
The hairy woodpecker, like many another bird and beast, furnishes much
doubtful weather lore for credulous and inexact observers. "When the
woodpecker pecks low on the trees, expect warm weather" is a common saying,
but when different individuals are seen pecking at the same time, one but a
few feet from the ground, and another among the high branches, one may make
the prophecy that pleases him best.
The hairy woodpeckers love the deep woods. They are drummers, not singers; but
when walking in the desolate winter woods even the drumming and tapping of the
busy feathered workmen on a resonant limb is a solace, giving a sense of life
and cheerful activity which is invigorating.