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hairy woodpecker

American  

noun

  1. a North American woodpecker, Picoides villosus, resembling but larger than the downy woodpecker.


Etymology

Origin of hairy woodpecker

An Americanism dating back to 1720–30

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

He points out a hairy woodpecker pounding away at a snag.

From Seattle Times Dec. 1, 2023

A photo caption that accompanied an image with the article misidentified a downy woodpecker as a hairy woodpecker, and a group of bright yellow finches or vireos was referred to only as “birds.”

From Washington Post Apr. 7, 2023

The downy woodpecker uses its bill to search for food on small twigs and branches while the hairy woodpecker is most often observed searching for food on tree trunks.

From Textbooks Jun. 9, 2022

Among the species he reported seeing were the hairy woodpecker, downy woodpecker, black-capped chickadee, red breasted nuthatch, white breasted nuthatch and red-bellied woodpecker.

From Washington Times Jan. 2, 2021

Sometimes the hairy woodpecker, a much larger bird, routs Downy out and wrecks his house.

From The Wit of a Duck and Other Papers by Burroughs, John

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