Woodpeckers

Hairy Woodpecker

Haarspecht

Dryobates villosus

Woodpeckers11 photosFirst seen: 8 July 2026

The Hairy Woodpecker is a medium-sized black-and-white woodpecker with a long, strong bill. Males have a red patch on the back of the head, while females do not. It searches tree trunks and large branches for beetle larvae and other insects. The species occurs in mature woodland, parks and recently burned forest. It resembles the Downy Woodpecker but is larger and has a bill nearly as long as its head.

ID tip: The clincher against Downy Woodpecker is the bill length, which is nearly as long as the head, backed up by clean, unmarked white outer tail feathers.

First seen: 8 July 2026 · Carkeek Park · 11 photos in the collection.

Places in my records

Locations where this species is supported by a dated first record, an unambiguous single-place outing or a reviewed assignment.

Carkeek Park8 July 2026 San Juan Islands12 August 2026

Family: Woodpeckers (Picidae)
Length: 18–26 cm
Wingspan: 33–41 cm
Regional status: Year-round resident (Pacific Northwest, USA)
Conservation: Least Concern LCIUCN Red List · retrieved 27 August 2026assessment listed as Leuconotopicus villosus
Habitat: Mature conifer and mixed forest, wooded foothills
Diet: Wood-boring beetle larvae and other insects; some seeds

Built from verified occurrence records, not drawn by hand. Core range = the countries holding 99% of all records; the rest are scattered or vagrant records. Record counts track where people watch birds as much as where the birds are, so the map shows presence, not abundance. Data: GBIF (CC BY 4.0). Basemap: Natural Earth.

Selected photographs

Complete photo archiveAll 11 published photographs of this species, including the selected main gallery.Open all 11 photos in the archive →