One of the most abundant woodpeckers, these little birds have stiff tail feathers serving to brace them, like a tripod, as they cling to trees. That solid position supports them as they "drum" on hollow logs to announce territories. All woodpeckers have long barbed tongues used to pull insects out of tiny places. The tripod stance of the Downy makes its hunt for food a little easier.
Downys have a three-fold support system.
How about you?
Do you have some friends you can lean on? Can they lean on you?
By yourself you're unprotected. With a friend you can face the worst. Can you round up a third? A three-stranded rope isn't easily snapped. - Ecclesiastes 4:12
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Love the insight. I hope you're having a wonderful day! For me, this support system has been the most complex and "Make you say hmmm," part of my faith journey. Rewarding, important, desired, YES! It reminds me of something I heard one time that you have many acquaintances, a good number of friends, but only a few (1-3) people in a life time that will be your closest of close friends (that you'd tell anything to, do anything for, etc.).
I have found that the later has been ever changing over the past 8 years and that gets hard to rebuild and start over. Probably just me, but that has been my experience. Love the idea, love the people it works for, but at this point I'm still left desiring that support system. Thanks for this, it has made me think about something this morning that I put off in the back of my head. Have a great day.
Posted by: aaron dewinter | May 29, 2008 at 09:59 AM
Nice picture, but it's a Hairy Woodpecker not a Downy. For comparison Go to: http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://k53.pbase.com/o6/89/648689/1/74071184.DLBg98U8.6208.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.pbase.com/maresphotos/image/74071184&h=522&w=800&sz=511&hl=en&start=70&um=1&tbnid=5ZEFq0mXb5fHKM:&tbnh=93&tbnw=143&prev=/images%3Fq%3DHairy%2Bwoodpecker%26start%3D60%26ndsp%3D20%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26sa%3DN
The Hairy Woodpecker has a larger beak than the Downy.
Posted by: Don Kierstead | July 08, 2008 at 10:02 AM
Nice photo of a female Hairy Woodpecker. Note the absence of tiny black marks on the white outer tail feathers and relatively large bill size...so not a Downy.
Posted by: georgie | February 16, 2010 at 10:32 PM
I think this is the bird destroying my windows. How do I get rid of them. I dont mean to hurt them in any way. I just want to keep the rest of my windows. HELP!
Posted by: Julie | March 22, 2010 at 07:55 PM
ok there is a woodpecker on my roof and it is making holes everywhere what do i do?
Posted by: emily | July 05, 2010 at 07:10 PM
also evrytime i scare him away...5 minutes later he comes back making more wholes!help me please!!!!
Posted by: emily | July 05, 2010 at 07:13 PM