So, while birding at Funk in Ohio, I noticed a couple of downy woodpeckers hopping/chasing each other. The two males were swinging their heads back and forth and giving each other the hairy eyeball (or would that be the downy eyeball--ha ha, I crack myself up). I went to BNA and sure enough found this as an explanation for their behavior: "Both sexes use similar threat displays: tail fanned, crest raised, bill held high and waved back and forth jerkily as if dueling with an invisible foe with a sword. Crest-raising identifies sex, exaggerates size, and reflects aggression."

BNA also mentions, "Wing Flicking—a rapid slight extension and raising of the wings is a mild threat display that with increased intensity becomes the Wing Spreading Display."

There was a third male that wanted in on the action, but he was doing his display well away from the other two--Fierce!