Yesterday, during the lovely snow, I spotted the above on my ash tree. At first, I thought it was an enormous woodpecker, since it was clinging to the tree in the same way a woodpecker does. After taking some photos I decided to look it up online and it seemed to lack one major woodpecker feature, red coloring on the head. It seems like it might be a yellow shafted Northern Flicker. The white and black spots on its breast were particularly beautiful.
Now I want to put out some suet and sunflower seeds. :)
6 comments:
It's the grey-spotted head banger. Everyone knows that.
Grey-spotted headbanger? That bird looks nothing like Ozzy Osbourne.
I emailed my Dad (a bonus of retirement = he's only steps away from his bird book).
He wrote me back: "My guess is that it is either a female or a juvenile Red-Shafted Flicker.
From the bird book: 'Common. Crown is brown, face grey; mustache of the male is red, not black, as in the Yellow-Shafted. The red nape is lacking. Wing and tail linings salmon.'"
"Red-Shafted Flicker"?!?
What is it with ornithologists and the X-rated names, anyway? "Well, we saw a flock of Yellow-Backed Titbangers and a Squatwinged Ballhumper yesterday, but no Green-Chested Fluffers."
It's on purpose, isn't it? Go ahead, you can tell me. It'll only confirm what I already believe devoutly.
We get the yellow-bellied sap suckers down here in the winter, they too look & behave a lot like woodpeckers. The tree out behind my apartment is riddled with little rows of sap holes from them.
And Eric, I am NOT making up that name. I suspect some of them winter in NC as well. As do some varieties of bushtits.
As do some varieties of bushtits.
::SNORT::
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