Female Downy Woodpecker
"We can watch the downy woodpecker best in winter when the trees and shrubs are bare. But even in such an exposed situation as a leafless tree, we do not find it a conspicuous bird--one hop and it is hidden behind a branch, seeming almost to glide out of our sight. At the slightest alarm it disappears; it uses a branch as a shield--slipping behind it, safe from observation or attack.
"The bird is at home also in shrubbery, moving easily among the smaller branches, hitching along their slender length, picking at the bark, and leaping from one branch to another with the aid of a flip of the wings. It sits crosswise on a perch scarcely bigger than a twig, leaning forward a little, bill outstretched, suggesting in position and outline a tiny kingfisher.
“Here, at close range, on a level with our eyes, we realize how rapid the bird's motions are. The beak strikes and draws back--the two movements in a single flash. The head turns to one side, to the other side, bringing first one dark shining eye, then the other, to bear on the bark; we see the head in the two positions, although we get only a hint of the motion between."
Birds by Bent, Published in 1939: Smithsonian Institution
www.birdsbybent.com///////ch11-20/downy.html#behavior Thanks, Pekabo
More about Downy Woodpeckers:
1000mm, f/8, 1/640 and slow except for the lack of motion, ISO 1400
Female Downy Woodpecker
"We can watch the downy woodpecker best in winter when the trees and shrubs are bare. But even in such an exposed situation as a leafless tree, we do not find it a conspicuous bird--one hop and it is hidden behind a branch, seeming almost to glide out of our sight. At the slightest alarm it disappears; it uses a branch as a shield--slipping behind it, safe from observation or attack.
"The bird is at home also in shrubbery, moving easily among the smaller branches, hitching along their slender length, picking at the bark, and leaping from one branch to another with the aid of a flip of the wings. It sits crosswise on a perch scarcely bigger than a twig, leaning forward a little, bill outstretched, suggesting in position and outline a tiny kingfisher.
“Here, at close range, on a level with our eyes, we realize how rapid the bird's motions are. The beak strikes and draws back--the two movements in a single flash. The head turns to one side, to the other side, bringing first one dark shining eye, then the other, to bear on the bark; we see the head in the two positions, although we get only a hint of the motion between."
Birds by Bent, Published in 1939: Smithsonian Institution
www.birdsbybent.com///////ch11-20/downy.html#behavior Thanks, Pekabo
More about Downy Woodpeckers:
1000mm, f/8, 1/640 and slow except for the lack of motion, ISO 1400