Wednesday, February 10, 2016

Downy Woodpecker (Picoides pubescens) - 07Feb2016

Picoides pubescens?  I understand where our Latin comrades were going with this "with the hairs of puberty" aka downy, but this anthropomorphic description does not do this cute bird justice.  Maybe in ancient Rome pubic hair was considered soft and nice but it just doesn't work nowadays.  I will stick with Downy Woodpecker.  What were the ornithologists thinking when they pegged this bird a pecker and then added insult to injury and compared his feathers to pubic hair.

The Downy Woodpecker is the smallest of the North American Woodpeckers and also the most cute.


This particular bird was photographed in the backyard of the Connors in Winston-Salem while waiting for a Buff-bellied Hummingbird to show.  At the time, I had no idea this pecker had been banded.

No comments:

Post a Comment