THE HAIRY WOODPECKER 



THE Hairy Woodpecker is so like his small Downy 

 relative in appearance and habits that his character- 

 istics are not usually dwelt upon; he is like an older neg- 

 lected cousin of a baby upon whom much attention is 

 lavished. 



But he is very worth while attracting. He is as untiring 

 as the Downy in his quest for beetles, his favorite kind of 

 tree-food; he is also a lover of ants and other "borers." 

 His longer bill enables him ta reach many that the Downy 

 cannot. One Hairy Woodpecker alone saved an entire 

 orchard that had become infested with "borers." One 

 tree had died before he began his rescue-work, but he 

 saved all the others.^ 



He likes the caterpillars of the cecropia and gypsy 

 moths. He eats much vegetable food, especially during 

 the winter; he has been known to take an occasional bite 

 of the soft inner bark of trees and a drink of sap which he 

 has well earned. Like the Downy, he will eat suet in the 

 winter season. 



Mr. Forbush writes: "While this bird often excavates 

 a hole for winter shelter, it sometimes sleeps exposed on 

 a tree-trunk. Mr. Bailey and I once watched one that 

 slept for many winter nights on the north side of a tree 

 trunk in a thick grove. It attached its claws to the bark 

 and went to sleep in much the same position in which it 

 ordinarily climbed the tree. It invariably went to the 

 same tree at night, and was found in the same place at 

 daylight every morning." ^ 



1 & 2 "Useful Birds and Their Protection"— E. H. Forbush, pages 259 & 

 260. 



[71] 



