OUR FIVE COMMON WOODPECKERS 



TF, AS you walk through some old orchard 

 "^ o:^ along the borders of a woodland tan- 

 gle, you see a high-shouldered, stocky bird 

 clinging fast to the side of a tree "as if he had 

 been thrown at it and stuck," you may be very 

 sure he is a woodpecker. Four of our five 

 common, non-union carpenters wear striking 

 black and white suits, patched or striped, the 

 males with red on their heads, their wives with 

 less of this jaunty touch of colour perhaps, or 

 none, but wearing otherwise similar clothes. 

 Only the dainty little black and white creeping 

 warbler could possibly be confused with the 

 smallest of these^sturdy, matter-of-fact artisans, 

 although, as you know, chickadees, titmice, 

 nuthatches and kinglets also haunt the bark of 

 trees; but the largest of these is smaller than 

 downy, the smallest of the woodpeckers. One of 

 the carpenters, the big flicker, an original 

 fellow, is dressed in soft browns, yellow, white 

 and black, with the characteristic red patch 

 across the back of his neck. 



It is easy to tell a woodpecker at sight or 

 even beyond it, when you see or hear him ham- 

 mering for a dinner, or drumming a love song;, 



