"Ha-ha-ha-HAA-ha!"

This Hairy Woodpecker was a surprise visitor to our bird feeder this morning. We have many downy woodpeckers, which look identical but half the size.

Downies are sparrow-sized, with a tiny bill and striped outer tail coverts. The Hairy is about the size of a robin. Hairys wield a much longer bill than the Downy Woodpecker's almost thorn like bill. Hairy Woodpeckers have a somewhat soldierly look, with their erect, straight-backed posture on tree trunks and their cleanly striped heads.

Woody Woodpecker's famous laugh, "Ha-ha-ha-HAA-ha!" first appeared in the short Knock Knock. The cartoon stars Andy Panda and his father,Papa Panda, but it is Woody who steals the show. Woody constantly pesters the two pandas, apparently just for the fun of it. Andy, meanwhile, tries to sprinkle salt on Woody's tail in the belief that this will somehow capture the bird.

With his innate chutzpah and brash demeanor it never happens.