My feeders attract a fair number of our common woodpeckers. Downy woodpeckers are probably the most common. They are fairly small and often travel with small flocks of chickadees, titmice and nuthatches. They especially love suet.

These photos were taken through a window so aren’t great but you should be able to see the size difference.

The top photo is of a downy.  Note the red marking on the back of its head. This tells you it is a male. The female looks the same but does not have the red marking.

The hairy woodpecker looks a LOT like the downy woodpecker but it is much larger. As you can see in this photo, it is actually bigger than the feeder. It is also a male.

Beginner birders often have trouble telling these two similar birds apart. It’s easy when you have something to measure them against, like this suet feeder. If you’re lucky you might catch the two birds in close proximity but I wouldn’t hang around waiting for that to happen. Both these birds are easy to see in our woodland areas but as you can see, they also like neighborhood feeders.

You can learn lots more about these interesting woodpeckers by clicking on the links above.