Downy woodpeckers primarily live in forested areas throughout the United States and Canada, with the exception of deserts in the southwest and the northern tundra.

The bird nests in tree cavities and feeds primarily on insects, although it supplements its diet with seeds and berries.

The downy woodpecker was described and illustrated with a hand-coloured plate by the English naturalist Mark Catesby in his The Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands, which was published between 1729 and 1732.

[2] When in 1766 the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus updated his Systema Naturae for the twelfth edition, he included the downy woodpecker, coined the binomial name Picus pubescens and cited Catesby's book.

[5] The downy woodpecker was usually placed in either Dendrocopos or Picoides, but a molecular phylogenetic study published in 2015 found that these genera did not form monophyletic groups.

[18] Downy woodpeckers prefer to nest in areas with ample light, leading them to favor trees with broader leaves, such as poplars, birches, and ashes, or forest openings and edges.

[20] Downy woodpeckers forage on trees, picking the bark surface in summer and digging deeper in winter.

[21] They are a natural predator of the European corn borer, a moth that costs the US agriculture industry more than $1 billion annually in crop losses and population control.

[22][23] In winter, especially, downy woodpeckers can often be found in suburban backyards with mature trees where they feed on suet and shelled peanuts provided by mesh birdfeeders.

Downy woodpeckers will start breeding in their first possible season and will return to a site within 2 hectares of where they were born.

During waking hours, both birds will incubate, or warm the eggs for 15 minute periods, taking turns in alternating shifts.

This process starts when their young still occupy the nest, ultimately culminating with replacement of the two strongest, central feathers.