Under a number of aliases the friendly tricolored DOWNIES are found thruout North America except Arctic and arid plains regions. Usually they are resident and endure extreme cold with apparent unconcern. When trees are frozen they waste no effort in drilling but seek grubs and other food under bark and in crevices of roots and rocks. Hang suet around your home and you have made life-long friends with the cheerful Downies, and their rattling call will be as buoyant in December as in May. In Spring the males test different hollow limbs and their resonant drum beats will echo far across the fields.

The sides of our fire escape are 1 ¼ inch iron pipe, but our Downies often alight on it and hang without effort. I have often seen them drop down like the Hairies and catch another grip underneath an inclined branch. In Winter they go to bed in a favored tree hollow (often the same hole they use for nesting) about four in the afternoon and do not turn out until after seven in the morning. A case of avian semi-hibernation.