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Downy Woodpecker
Picoides pubescens

Downy Woodpecker
  • Nearly ubiquitous and likely increasing

“As for farming, I am convinced that my genius dates from an older era than the agricultural. I would at least strike my spade into the earth with such careless freedom but accuracy as the woodpecker his bill into a tree.” – Henry David Thoreau, A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers

The Downy Woodpecker is the commonest and smallest woodpecker in Massachusetts, and in fact holds these titles for our continent as a whole. They are frequent visitors to winter feeders, especially suet feeders, and can be found fairly easily in all regions of the state year-round. The species ably withstood the period of Massachusetts history wherein most of our forests were felled to make room for farmland. Now that the forests are returning, Downy Woodpeckers are in their element.

Historic Status

Where there are trees in the United States, there likely are Downy Woodpeckers, and so it has been since the earliest observers of birds moved throughout the country. “I have found it pretty generally distributed from the lower parts of Louisiana to Labrador,” said John James Audubon, “and as far to the westward as I have traveled. It seems, in fact, to accommodate itself to circumstances, and to live contented anywhere” (Audubon 1840). Massachusetts has never been an exception.

Atlas 1 Distribution

Common and familiar, Downy Woodpeckers were predictably widespread during Atlas 1. West of the Berkshire Transition and Vermont Piedmont, Downys were present in just about every block. They were also widely distributed in the Connecticut River Valley but puzzlingly absent from sections of the Worcester Plateau, which may have been due to survey effort. Throughout the Coastal Plains and the Boston Basin, Downy Woodpeckers were very prevalent, and only slightly less so in the Bristol/Narragansett Lowlands. The Cape and Islands had Downy Woodpeckers in just over half of all blocks, including at least a few on both major Islands.

Atlas 2 Distribution and Change

The Atlas 2 surveys found Downy Woodpeckers to be even more widespread than they were in the 1970s. Any block having even a few trees was virtually ensured to host Downy Woodpeckers during the breeding season, and suburban (or even urban) development did not appear to faze these adaptable woodpeckers in the slightest. So successful and broadly distributed was this species that not a single ecoregion reported less than 80% block occupancy in Atlas 2, and all but one had 90% occupancy or more. Although Cape Cod and the Islands had the lowest absolute block occupancy, many of the blocks from which the species was absent were coastal blocks with little land area. The offshore islands particularly exhibited considerable Downy Woodpecker expansion during the inter-Atlas period.

 

Atlas 1 Map

bba1 map

Atlas 2 Map

bba2 map

Atlas Change Map

change map
 

Ecoregion Data


 

Atlas 1

Atlas 2

Change

Ecoregion

# Blocks

% Blocks

% of Range

# Blocks

% Blocks

% of Range

Change in # Blocks

Change in % Blocks

Taconic Mountains

14

87.5

1.8

23

92.0

2.3

1

6.7

Marble Valleys/Housatonic Valley

39

100.0

5.1

39

100.0

4.0

0

0.0

Berkshire Highlands

52

94.5

6.8

55

100.0

5.6

2

3.8

Lower Berkshire Hills

27

96.4

3.5

28

90.3

2.8

-2

-7.4

Vermont Piedmont

12

70.6

1.6

17

100.0

1.7

2

16.7

Berkshire Transition

31

81.6

4.0

39

97.5

4.0

4

12.9

Connecticut River Valley

54

96.4

7.0

62

95.4

6.3

1

2.1

Worcester Plateau

54

69.2

7.0

87

98.9

8.8

12

25.0

Lower Worcester Plateau

54

73.0

7.0

80

100.0

8.1

5

9.3

S. New England Coastal Plains and Hills

221

81.9

28.8

278

98.2

28.3

25

11.1

Boston Basin

44

78.6

5.7

52

92.9

5.3

7

12.7

Bristol and Narragansett Lowlands

89

84.0

11.6

107

93.9

10.9

11

10.9

Cape Cod and Islands

77

56.6

10.0

117

81.3

11.9

30

25.0

Statewide Total

768

79.3

100.0

984

94.9

100.0

98

11.8

 

Notes

In accordance with Atlas increases, the Downy Woodpecker shows significant increasing Breeding Bird Survey trends in Massachusetts, the New England/Mid-Atlantic Region, and in the Eastern US overall.

Breeding Bird Survey Chart