Woodpeckers
This male Norther Flicker pauses for a moment while hammering on metal chimney flange.
On a spring morning, I am often awakened by the sound of a male woodpecker hammering at the metal flange of my chimney. He is apparently displaying his vitality and virility to the females by this impressive racket which exceeds that which he could have made by hammering on a tree.
Woodpeckers which have been seen around Kootenay Lake are: Lewis’ Woodpecker, Red-naped Sapsucker, Downy Woodpecker, Hairy Woodpecker, White-headed Woodpecker, Three-toed Woodpecker, Black-backed Woodpecker, Northern Flicker, Pileated Woodpecker.
An adult (yellow eyes), male (reddish moustache) Pileated Woodpecker is sampling elderberries in November.
This adult male Pileated Woodpecker looks for insects in a utility pole.
This adult (yellow eyes) female (black moustache) Pileated Woodpecker had lost its balance while picking elderberries and had stabilize with wings.
This is a juvenile (dark eyes) female (black moustache) Pileated Woodpecker. It is searching for bugs in the cracks of a utility pole. It is November, insects have retreated there to overwinter.
In a cedar tree, about a hundred meters from the Lake’s edge, appear these characteristically oval holes drilled by a Pileated Woodpecker in its search for carpenter ants.
A Pileated Woodpecker has white on the underside of its wings.
That this is a male Northern Flicker is evident by his red mustache.
The female Norther Flicker sits on the edge of a nest hole in an old piling. It lacks the red mustache.
A pair of Northern Flickers searches for ants.
This is a female Hairy Woodpecker; the female lacks the red spot on the head. The Hairy is quite similar to the Downy. But among the visible differences is the longer bill of the Hairy. 
Doug Thorburn
This is a male Hairy Woodpecker; it has a red spot on the head. Doug Thorburn
Woodpeckers often start their foraging by listen for insects in a tree. This is a male Hairy Woodpecker. Doug Thorburn
This Downy Woodpecker is a juvenile male: its occipital red patch is incompletely formed. Females look the same, except lack the red spot. The downy is the smallest woodpecker in North America.
A juvenile Red-naped Sapsucker rests on the side of a window.
The local sapsucker is a Red-naped Sapsucker. It drills rows of small holes through the inner cambium layer of the bark causing the sap to ooze out. The sapsucker then laps it up along with whatever insects are attracted to it. The tree here is probably an alder.
As the tree grows, and the trunk expands, the scars of the old sapsucker holes expand.
A male Red–naped Sapsucker samples some wells it had previously drilled in the bark of a mountain ash.
Two female flickers check out a possible nesting site.
A chick leans out of its nest hole and begs food from its father. He fed it.
A chick leans out of its nest hole and begs food from its mother. She fed it.
Information from Wikipedia: Northern Flicker, Hairy Woodpecker, Downy Woodpecker, Pileated Woodpecker, Red‑naped Sapsucker.
