Hitching down a tree trunk is common for woodpeckers. They usually do that to move short distances downward, especially while foraging. However, if the distance is great, say the bird wants to move from the top of the tree to the base of the trunk, it will usually fly down. However, in flight, woodpeckers are more vulnerable to predators, by remaining on the tree trunk and hitching down, they can easily duck around the other side of the tree to avoid a predator.

BN

There are perching birds and there are clinging birds. Woodpeckers, Nuthatches, and Brown Creepers come to mind as clinging birds. They do that hop up and down the tree thing. If you observe them when they try to walk on something flat like a deck railing, you will see they kind of hop on their haunches. They seem to be out of their element on a horizontal surface.

Fascinating, thanks!

Juvenile woodpeckers aren't smaller than their parents. The way you can tell that they are juvenile is by time of year behavior (begging, being fed by an adult) or by eye color. Juveniles have brown eyes and adults have yellow.

I, too, am fascinated by bird behavior and especially woodpeckers. I recently watched a pair of Pileated Woodpeckers fly in and land in the woods beside my house (in NC). They split up, each finding a downed log amd pulverizing the wood in search of insects. I watched for about 15 min til they explored a couple of live trees then left. The long, close-up observation of their strength was amazing.