#Audubon downy woodpecker Patch

#Audubon downy woodpecker Patch

Adult males have a red patch on the back of the head whereas juvenile birds display a red cap. They have a black tail with white outer feathers barred with black.

There is one white bar above the eye, and one below. The downy woodpecker is mainly black on the upperparts and wings, with a white back, throat and belly and white spotting on the wings.

The total length of the species ranges from 14 to 18 cm (5.5 to 7.1 in) and the wingspan from 25 to 31 cm (9.8 to 12.2 in). pubescens ( Linnaeus, 1766) – southeast USAĭescription The female lacks the red patch on the back of the headĪdult downy woodpeckers are the smallest of North America's woodpeckers, but there are many smaller species elsewhere, especially the piculets. leucurus ( Hartlaub, 1852) – Rocky Mountains (southeast Alaska to southwest USA) turati ( Malherbe, 1860) – central Washington to central California gairdnerii ( Audubon, 1839) – west Oregon to northwest California fumidus ( Maynard, 1889) – southwest Canada and west Washington medianus ( Swainson, 1832) – central Alaska to east Canada and central and east USA glacialis ( Grinnell, 1910) – southeast Alaska Why they evolved this way cannot be explained with confidence it may be relevant that the species exploit rather different-sized foodstuffs and do not compete very much ecologically. ĭespite their close resemblance, the downy and hairy woodpeckers are not very closely related the outward similarity is an example of convergent evolution. Within the genus, the downy woodpecker is sister to a clade containing Nuttall's woodpecker ( Dryobates nuttalli) and the ladder-backed woodpecker ( Dryobates scalaris). In the revised generic classification, the downy woodpecker was placed with four other species in the resurrected genus Dryobates, that had been erected in 1826 by the German naturalist Friedrich Boie with the downy woodpecker as the type species. The downy woodpecker was usually placed in either Dendrocopos or Picoides, but a molecular phylogenetic study published in 2015 found that these genera did not form monophyletic groups. Linnaeus specified the type locality as America septentrionali (North America) but the locality is now restricted to South Carolina. The specific epithet pubescens is the Latin for 'pubescent' or 'downy'. When in 1766 the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus updated his Systema Naturae for the twelfth edition, he included the downy woodpecker, coined the binomial name Picus pubescens and cited Catesby's book. The downy woodpecker was described and illustrated with a hand-coloured plate by the English naturalist Mark Catesby in his The Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands, which was published between 17. The downy woodpecker is very similar in appearance to the hairy woodpecker, although they are not closely related. The bird nests in tree cavities and feeds primarily on insects, although it supplements its diet with seeds and berries.

Downy woodpeckers primarily live in forested areas throughout the United States and Canada, with the exception of deserts in the southwest and the northern tundra. Length ranges from 14 to 18 cm (5.5 to 7.1 in). The downy woodpecker ( Dryobates pubescens) is a species of woodpecker, the smallest in North America. Please consider expanding the lead to provide an accessible overview of all important aspects of the article. This article's lead section may be too short to adequately summarize the key points.