Not long ago, I mentioned that a pair of these birds were excavating a nest hole in a dead limb of a tree right off the trail through the woods on the other side of the property. But this was a mistake; these birds must have excavated their nest hole some time earlier. What I thought was nest excavation must have been an even more demanding exercise: feeding newly hatched chicks.
This retrospective insight comes about because I was strolling near the nest site this morning when I heard some lisping sounds that I attributed to titmice or chickadees. Eventually however I was able to pinpoint the source of these ventriloqual sounds. They were coming from the nest hole and, furthermore, the female Downy was hovering in the neighborhood, apparently hesitating to come in. Finally, she came to the stub, poked her head inside the hole and performed what was obviously a feeding operation. After she left, all was quiet for a little while but eventually the jingling noise resumed and two of the young birds stuck their heads out the nest hole demanding some further action. These were no little bitty chicklets but almost full-grown birds with recognizable woodpecker beaks and face markings. I would guess that these nestling are only a couple of days away from leaving the nest.
Downy Woodpeckers are year-rounders (our migrant woodpeckers are the N Flicker and the Yellow-bellied Sapsucker which nests further north). That means, the Downies can get a head start on courting and nesting with young ready to fly by the end of May or beginning of June.
Speaking of woodpeckers and migration, it is very noticeable that the Flickers are starting to get active just now, well after their presumed rivals, the Red-bellied Woodpeckers. Again, I would guess that, since the Red-bellied are year-rounders, they get a long head start on nesting while the Flickers are highly migratory and begin their nesting cycle some time later.
Eric Salzman
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