All-Habitat Woodpeckers

     One day in the middle of May a few years ago, I was walking along main street of our small town and happened to notice a downy woodpecker land on a tree near me along the walk.  The bird had insects in its beak, hitched up the tree about a foot and disappeared into a round hollow it chipped into a dead limb on that tree.  When it came out of its cavity, I noticed it was a female downy.  I was amazed that a woodland bird would be nesting in a planted tree along a sidewalk on busy main street in a town. 
     Occasionally, I have seen red-bellied woodpeckers and northern flickers wintering or nesting in this same neighborhood.  Again, I marveled at those woodpeckers' ability to adapt to less than ideal, woodland conditions.   
     Seven kinds of woodpeckers live in southeastern Pennsylvania at some time of the year, including downy, hairy, red-headed, red-bellied and pileated woodpeckers, northern flickers and yellow-bellied sapsuckers.  All these species are adaptable and common in this area.  And, as their family name implies, woodpecker species developed first in woodlands.  But only permanent resident downies and red-bellies and partly migrant flickers commonly inhabit woods, and human-made suburban areas and meadows studded with trees.  
     All woodpecker species chip into the dead wood of trees to enter the tunnels of insects.  Then woodpeckers run their long, sticky tongues into the insect burrows to capture the insects, pull them out and swallow them.
     All woodpecker species chisel out nesting cavities, of different sizes, depending on the kind of bird, in dead wood to raise young.  Many of those woodpecker nurseries, when abandoned, are used by black rat snakes, honey bees, squirrels, raccoons, chickadees, bluebirds, screech owls and other kinds of creatures. 
     Woodpeckers, as a family, have a few characteristics that help them get their food in trees.  All species have stiff tail feathers to help prop them up on the sides of trees.  All species have two toes in front and two in back of each foot to help them cling to vertical bark.  And all of them have heavily-boned skulls to withstand the blows their beaks deliver to dead wood.  
     Downy woodpeckers are the smallest species of their family in North America, being not much larger than a sparrow.  Their feathering has a black and white pattern and male downies have a red spot on the back of the head. 
     Red-bellies are a southern species that pushed north in the early 1960's.  Today it is one of the most common of woodpeckers in southeastern Pennsylvania, as elsewhere.  And because it is larger and audibly boisterous, it is probably experienced here more than downies. 
     Red-bellies are robin-sized, and black and white striped, like a zebra, on top.  Males have red feathers on top of the head and down the neck, while females have red down the neck. 
     Northern flickers are an unusual woodpecker.  While most woodpeckers have black and white feathering, flickers are mostly brown with dark streaks and spots.  And while most woodpeckers get invertebrate food in trees, flickers mostly eat ants in the ground.  Flickers, therefore, are mostly brown to blend into their soil feeding niche, to avoid the attention of predators.
     Woodpeckers, as a group, have several characteristics unique to themselves.  And three species have adapted well to suburbs and certain pastures with trees in them.  Those kinds of woodpeckers have additional nesting habitats to increase their numbers, and we have species of interesting birds rearing offspring close to home.