Ms Harry

[Ron Evers]

The male Redbelly came back again but took of as I approached the door & was replaced by a couple Starlings. I opened the door to scoot the Starlings & Ms Harry was not concerned about me so I went back inside retrieved the camera & went back outside the door to shoot her.

[joan w]

Shoot her?!!! Shoot those lovely starlings? I attached a square suet holder to the bottom of a feeder, which is easy for the wee birds but not so easy for the glutonous starlings.

Nice pics Ron.

[Ron Evers]

I would like to shoot the damn Starlings Joan & not with a camera.

I guess Himself stayed back until herself had a feed & then he came in.

[bluebird]

Nice captures Ron!!

[Smitty]

very nice!!!!

[kelly_m]

Yup...you did good!! I like the close-up of the Mrs!!!

[Eeyore]

Are you saying those are Hairy's? The look an awful lot like Downy's.... What's the difference?

[Laura]

Me thinks the male is a Downy he is smaller than the female Hairy.

Nice pictures Ron.Hope you get some shots of the Red-Belly's.

[Ron Evers]

Are you saying those are Hairy's? The look an awful lot like Downy's.... What's the difference?

Harry's are twice the size of Downy's but look the same to me. I am sure there are other differences that BB could tell us though.

[bluebird]

Oh..I didn't realize that Ron was thinking the male Downy was a Hairy as he had already posted the male Downy in a previous post...I thought you were showing the differences between the Hairy and Downy in this post. Ron has one of each.

Yes, the first photo shows the larger Hairy Woodpecker, a female as she lacks the red patch on the head. The relative size of the bill to the head width is another easy way to tell the two apart as Ron's photos so nicely show. Note how much smaller the Downy's bill is in the second photo compared to the much larger bill of the Hairy.

In the second photo, the Downy Woodpecker also shows another good field mark, the tiny black dot/bars along the white of the tail feathers. Hairy's lack these marks.

And while it doesn't always show, Hairy's often have a black bar/line that comes out onto the breast at the shoulder area.

And, while the Hairy is larger than the Downy, size is often relative and one can't always see that as birds don't tend to land on rulers...but as they both landed on the same suet ball, you can easily see how much smaller the Downy is by these two great pics.