Scientific Name: Picoides pubescens

Appearance: smallest woodpecker in North America, found easily throughout West Virginia. Bird is black with white spots and stripes with a white back. Some people mis-identify it as a "ladderback" woodpecker (which is truly a very different species). Males have a red dot on the back of their head, females do not.

Size: Length 6 ", wingspread about 11 - 12" weight about 1 ounce.

Range: USA and Canada

Food Preferences: bugs and larvae, fruit, seeds, sap, suet.

Hunting Technique: finds grubs and bugs by drilling holes in ill, dying or dead trees or other wood, forages for seeds and sap. Comes easily to suet cakes at feeding stations.

Breeding & Habitat: found throughout the US, prefers lightly forested landscapes. Breeding courtship begins in January - February with both sexes drumming on resonant wood to establish territories and to advertise their presence to the opposite sex.

Nesting: in a cavity in nearly rotten limb or dead tree 5 - 50 feet above the ground, entrance is 1.5 inches in diameter, nest widens out into nesting chamber. Both sexes excavate nest site. Sometimes will use nest boxes built just for woodpeckers.

Eggs: usually 4 - 5, white eggs laid between April and June.

Chicks: Both sexes incubate eggs, chicks hatch after about 12 days, two weeks later they can been seen at the entrance hole, one week after that they are ready to fly. Both parents feed insects to chicks every 3 minutes on average until they are ready to fly. Chicks follow parents until they can find their own food.

Status: found throughout West Virginia and the United States, this is probably the most commonly seen woodpecker.

NOTES: We receive many calls at TRAC in January and February as these pretty little woodpeckers start their drumming sessions. The reason? It is not uncommon for them to decide that someone's house is the perfect spot to start declaring their presence! Since the drumming sound is made with their strong beaks against the wood, sometimes some major house damage can occur in a short period of time. There is a safe, non-toxic solution though that works most of the time. Get some mustard (the kind you use on a hot-dog, the spicier the better) and, using an ordinary paint brush, paint it over the area the bird has been drumming on. They hate the taste and will frequently go elsewhere to drum.

These pretty birds do come readily to suet, and the cheapest and best suet is the kind you can make at home. Here's a tested and much-loved recipe:

Easy Suet Recipe:

Melt together in a microwave:

1 cup crunchy peanut butter

1 cup lard (no substituting!)

Then stir in:

1 cup whole wheat flour

2 cups cornmeal (NOT the self-rising kind!)

2 cups rolled oats (quick cook oats are OK)

2 - 4 handfuls of raisins

Put mixture into square containers and place in freezer. Makes about 3 - 4 cakes that will fit into a wire suet feeder. TIP: if you have been buying suet, save the plastic containers that the suet cakes come in and use them as the containers for the suet YOU make. You will find that birds of MANY species much prefer this suet to "store-bought".