Evening star., 1947-04-01
This and That
By Charles E. Traceuell
'LANHAM, Md.

LAN6AM, Mo.
Dear Sir:
Your column is the first page grab
for daily. I enjoy it immensely. Now,
for the first time, I am calling on you
for help in identifying a favorite visitor
of mine.
"This bird has been regular guest at
my window all winter, and last year he
even stayed for the summer. All my
attempts at identifying him in my guide
of Eastern birds have only left me more
puzzled. I think it might belong to the
warbler or woodpecker family-other
than that, I'm stumped.
"The bird is built like the downy
woodpecker, with the same kind of bill.
He is larger than the black-and- white
warbler. He has no red on him what
ever. However, the markings on his
head and neck are similar to the downy
woodpecker's-theo only difference being
that the white markings of the wood
pecker are all gray on this bird.
His breast and back as we'll as his
under tail coverts are grayish, yet he has
the identical wing markings of white,
typical of the woodpecker family.
IT have never heard a peep out of
him, although I've been listening care
fully. He pecks away forever on bones
that our dogs have left about. He is
forever stretching his neck as far as
he can and in all directions.
1--WE are on the heart of large woods
here. The birds this winter have been
Of all sorts, with the titmice, downy
woodpeckers, chickadees, blue jays,
juncos and cardinals leading the parade.
Yours sincerely, v. r. r."
4 4
The mysterious bird is the female
downy wocdpecker.
Downies are replicas in miniature of
the hairy woodpeckers of which the
female also has no red on the head.
The female downy woodpecker, in ad-
dition to lacking the red head of her
mate, is colored as described above.
Downy woodpeckers love suet. That
is why they like old bones.
This little fellow is just trifie over
inches. The nest is usually in dead
be made for them.
The eggs are white, four to six. These
birds make admirable parents.
They do great deal of good by de-
vouring tree parasites, and since they
stay here all winter they augment
their good, as it were.
1t is impossible to see at any distance
just why they are called downy, just as
the observer will not be able to see
why the hairy woodpecker is called
hairy.
These distinctions turn on very small
differences, of value to trained
ornithologist only.
The best way, one may feel, to know
the birds, is just as the readers of this
column do, from their windows, and
now and then in the fields and woods.
Birds are so alive, they are worth all
study, so the ornithologists are neces-
sary, ,,no doubt of that; but in the mean
time, we feel that "just plain folks, who
scarcely know one from another, get the
most fun out of the birds. because they
take them as they csme, and do not
worry about them. as the trained
ornithologists must do.
The downy woodpeckers are fine speci-
mems, good to see, good to have around.
They like the company of the other
small birds, and often may be seen with
the brown creeper, who is not as small as
We once thought.
The downy woodpecker, smallest OF
his tribe, has voice.
As spring comes on, the male bird
begins to make small cry, which you
may not hear, but which his mate surely
will.