#185 of 365 for July 5, 2013

I was outside and I kept hearing peck, peck, peck, peck. I thought my neighbors must be repairing something, yet it seemed so close. The light hammering sound continued for a while before I finally realized it was this tiny little bird in my front yard! He was pecking at a dead part of a tree and digging out some type of insect eggs. I was surprised he let me get rather close.

Well out of curiosity I looked this bird up.  The best I can tell it is a female downy woodpecker.  So it wasn't a he at all but a she :)   It was frail and scragly looking so I thought it might have been a juvenile but from what I read the juveniles and the males have red spots on their heads and I can see no red on this one.  Please post in the comment section if you know about this bird :)