Concord, Mass.
1910
June 11
[June 11, 1910]

Nest of Downy Woodpecker

  For nearly if not quite a week the Downy Woodpeckers
nesting in the elm over our shed have been feeding their young
at the mouth of the hole. Yet I have failed thus far to see
anything of the young even when the act of feeding took place. I 
do not think it is ever done by regurgitation, after the manner
of the Flicker, for whenever one of the parent birds comes
to the nest the food held in the tip of its bill is very
obvious and usually of the size of a rose beetle or larger. Moreover
the bird disposes of it very quickly & without an [any] peculiar motions
of the head merely thrusting its bill into the hole and a few
seconds later withdrawing it & flying off. * From morning to night
the young kept up a ceaseless clamor doubled in volume when
the parents appear. It is unlike the sound made by young
Hairy Woodpeckers or Flickers and very similar in a general way
to the chirping of black field crickets only louder & more
insistent. It is exceedingly tiresome & is getting on my nerves.
 * On June 12 I saw the [male] parents feed the young under conditions
so favorable for accurate observation that I can now say
positively that regurgitation was not used. The bird simply distributed
the food as a Robin or a chippy might have done making in
all five short peeks into the entrance hole. I saw its entire head
the whole time but not its full bill which however was out of my sight
not more than a second each time. I did not see the young.