Handbook of Nature-Study · Lesson XIV · Topic 2: Bird study: birds to know
14. The downy woodpecker
Goal: Your child can identify the downy woodpecker, tell a male from a female, and explain how its beak, tongue, feet and tail help it climb and find food.
You'll need
- A suet feeder or a lump of beef fat on a tree trunk you can see from a window
- Binoculars (optional)
- Colored pencils (black, white, red)
- Nature notebook
What's in the book
The leading thought, the method (fasten beef fat to a tree that can be seen from the schoolroom) and ten questions about its colors and red patch, its notes and drumming, how it climbs and uses its tail and toes, its food and tongue, why it stays in winter, and its use to us. A long passage from John Burroughs about a downy drumming follows.
The lesson, step by step
When and where
All year, but winter at a suet feeder is easiest. Listen in early spring for drumming: a fast rattle of taps on a dead branch. Downies live in town yards, parks and woods.
Keep the big idea in mind
Read this to yourself:
The downy woodpecker remains with us all winter, feeding upon insects that are wintering in crevices and beneath the bark of our trees.
Who has the red patch?
What is the general color of the downy above and below?
Do all downy woodpeckers have the red patch at the back of the head? If not, why?
Only the male has it. Count how many of each come to the feeder.
Watch it climb
How does the downy climb a tree trunk? How does it descend? How do its actions differ from those of the nuthatch?
How does the downy use its tail to assist it in climbing? What is the shape of the tail and how is it adapted to assist?
Toes and tongue
How are the woodpecker's toes arranged to help it climb a tree trunk?
What does the downy eat and where does it find its food? Describe how it gets at its food.
Look at a picture of a woodpecker's foot: two toes forward and two back. Comstock's story explains that its long tongue spears grubs under the bark.
Drumming
What is the note of the downy? Does it make any other sound? Have you ever seen one drumming? At what time of the year? On what did it drum?
If you have time, read aloud a little of the John Burroughs passage on the page, about a downy that "literally drummed up a mate".
Put it into words
Ask: Why does the downy not need to fly south for winter? Then share the leading thought.
Nature notebook
Draw a downy on a tree trunk, propped on its stiff tail, with the red patch if it was a male. Write the date and whether it was a male or female.
Afterwards
Comstock's last question is a writing one: "How the downy builds its nest and rears its young." An older child can read about it and write a short paragraph.
Tip
The hairy woodpecker looks almost the same but is bigger, with a much longer beak. If you see both at the feeder, compare beak length.