Woodpeckers

[Astronuc]

I took a picture of this guy, a Red-bellied Woodpecker, in our maple tree.  He was at the birdfeeder earlier. 

Red-bellied woodpecker Melanerpes carolinus

http://www.birds.cornell.edu/BOW/REWO/

 

[Astronuc]

Downy woodpecker (Picoides pubescens)
http://www.mbr-pwrc.usgs.gov/id/framlst/i3940id.html
http://www.birds.cornell.edu/BOW/DOWP/

Identification Tips:

• Length: 5.75 inches
• Very small black and white woodpecker
• Very short bill
• Mostly black head set off by broad white supercilium and lower border to auriculars
• Black nape
• White back
• Black wings with white spotting on coverts and flight feathers
• White underparts
• Black rump
• Black tail with white outer tail feathers barred with black

A pair of downies are frequenting out suet feeders.

[Astronuc]

We are also getting - Hairy woodpecker Picoides villosus
http://www.mbr-pwrc.usgs.gov/id/framlst/i3930id.html
http://www.birds.cornell.edu/programs/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/Hairy_Woodpecker.html
It is similar but larger by 2 inches (5 cm) than the downy woodpecker

Identification Tips:

• Length: 7.5 inches
• Medium-sized black and white woodpecker
• Fairly long bill
• Mostly black head set off by broad white supercilium and lower border to auriculars
• Black nape
• White back
• Black wings with white spotting on coverts and flight feathers
• White underparts
• Black rump
• Black tail with white outer tail feathers

Significant racial variation can result in juveniles with barred outer tail feathers (Queen Charlotte Islands), juveniles with barred backs and flanks (Maritime provinces) and birds with brown feathering replacing the black (Pacific Northwest).

[Astronuc]

Even Woodpeckers lead to controversy.

Doubts over 'extinct' woodpecker
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4815424.stm

Scientists in the US are arguing over the identity of a bird filmed in 2004 which was heralded as the long-extinct ivory-billed woodpecker.
Researchers in Massachusetts said the interpretation of several of the bird's features was "mistaken".

However, experts at Cornell University, who identified the bird two years ago, have dismissed the new claims.

The discovery in Arkansas' Big Woods stunned ornithologists worldwide, with some comparing it to finding the dodo.

[Orstio]

http://www.aaas.org/news/releases/2006/0316scipak.shtml

This is heating up to rival the debate over the origins of man.... 

[Astronuc]

Well here are some shots taken in low light with digital zoom because of distance.  Unfortunately with the maximum zoom and low shutter speed, it was difficult to get the camera steady and focussed.  And the bird didn't stop moving.  If he wasn't repositioning himself on the tree, his head was going back and forth while he pecked holes in the trunk.

This is the kind of detail I would have liked to have obtained 
http://nature.gardenweb.com/forums/load/bird/msg051236068980.html

 

[Orstio]

Researchers see rare ivory-billed woodpecker in Florida swamps

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/09/26/america/NA_GEN_US_Ivory_Billed_Woodpecker.php

PENSACOLA, Florida After spending months in remote northwest Florida swamps searching for the ivory-billed woodpecker, researchers say they have seen and heard the rare bird once believed extinct.
 
But the Auburn University ornithologists, who published their findings in Canada's Avian Conservation and Ecology journal online Tuesday, failed to capture a picture of the large woodpecker with the white bill that makes a distinct double rapping sound.
 

[Astronuc]

to capture a picture of the large woodpecker

Isn't that always the case.  It is a rather elusive bird.  It's harder to take a picture of this bird than one of a UFO. 

Interesting if this bird has been seen in Arkansas/Louisiana and now Florida.