Woodpeckers

Lewis' Woodpecker

Lewis' Woodpeckers sometimes winter in the mountains around where I live. This year there are lots more than usual, at least my impression. I photographed this one at Silverwood Lake in the San Bernardino Mountains of southern California. I love their glossy green/black backs, pink fronts, and red face. 10/9/17 Judith Sparhawk

Lewis' Woodpecker 2

This woodpecker was photographed at Silverwood Lake, in the San Bernardino Mountains in southern California.

Lewis' Woodpecker 3

This Lewis' Woodpecker was photographed at Silverwood Lake, San Bernardino Mountains, southern California. This view shows the gray band around the back of the neck, as well as the pink breast and red face.

Acorn Woodpecker

This woodpecker was photographed at Cave Creek Ranch, Portal, Arizona.

Ladderback Woodpecker ~ This female Ladderback Woodpecker was photographed at Big Morongo Canyon Preserve in Southern California.

Red-bellied Woodpecker

This woodpecker was photographed at Fort Zachary Taylor State Park in Key West, Florida.

Red-bellied Woodpecker

As these birds don't live in California, I was very excited to see my first ones. Then I found out that in Florida, where I was birding, they are EVERYWHERE! At least I was able to get a few shots of them, such a treat.

Ladderback Woodpecker ~ This bird was photographed at the Big Morongo Canyon Preserve in the desert near Joshua Tree National Park.

Acorn Woodpecker ~ This Acorn Woodpecker was photographed in Ash Canyon, in the Huachuca Mountains in Southeast Arizona. He was nibbling on peanut butter at a feeder.

Ladderback Woodpecker ~ Photograph taken at Ash Canyon, Huachuca Mountains, Southeast Arizona.

Nuttall's Woodpecker ~ This female woodpecker was photographed by Covington Park in Morongo Valley, California. The male would have a bright red patch on the head. The Ladderback Woodpecker is more common in this desert environment. This may be a hybrid between the two species.

Nuttall's/Ladderback Woodpecker ~ This female woodpecker appears to be a possible hybrid between the two species. This pose looks strange, as she was launching off the tree trunk, but didn't have her wings open yet. She was photographed near Covington Park in Morongo Valley, California.

Pileated Woodpecker ~ This Pileated flew and perched on this branch about 15 feet away, and stayed long enough for a couple of photos.

Pileated Woodpecker

~ This 18 inch tall woodpecker was photographed in the forested area above the Sascatchewan River in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. He has great golden eyes, the red crest, and large white patches on his wings, which show in flight.

Pileated Woodpecker ~ During a visit to Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, I hiked into the forested area along the Saskatchewan River. I was excited to find a pair of Pileated Woodpeckers, which I never get to see at home. This one didn't seem to mind my presence, and I took many photographs.

Red-breasted Sapsucker ~ This sapsucker was the most common woodpecker-type bird that I saw this August on the east side of the Sierras. I had never been able to photograph them before, so this was a real treat.

At the Sap Wells ~ This Red-breasted Sapsucker was perched at the sap wells in this tree at Convict Lake, north of Bishop, California. It seemed very intent on sipping sap (or I guess it is sucking sap) at the wells, and was unconcerned about my being there. This allowed for several photographs.

Gila Woodpecker ~ This is the most common (and noisiest) woodpecker in southeastern Arizona. This one was photographed in Patagonia, in the Patton's yard.

Arizona Woodpecker ~ This woodpecker was photographed in Madera Canyon, in Arizona, in June, 2011

Male Nuttall's Woodpecker ~ This male Nuttall's had been in the nest, presumably feeding his young. He kept peeking out, waiting for the female to return to the nest, seemingly defending and protecting the nest. The female made all the noise and commotion when an Acorn Woodpecker came boldy nosing around the nest site.

The Masked Bandit ~ This Acorn Woodpecker flew into the tree while I was photographing a pair of nesting Nuttall's Woodpeckers at their nest. He was nosing around, causing the Nuttall's to sound the alarm and make a lot of noisy commotion for several minutes, until the Acorn finally flew away.

Nuttall's Woodpecker Digging Out Nest Hole ~ It's hard work making a nest hole in a tree. As I watched this woodpecker working on his future home, he had to go deeper and deeper to pull out the wood chips or "sawdust".

Male Nuttall's Woodpecker at the Nest Hole ~ At a local park today I found a male Nuttall's Woodpecker working on digging out a nest hole in a tree. I will check again later, hoping he finds a mate and raises a family.

Nuttall's Woodpecker at Nest Hole ~

Arizona Woodpecker

OK, I think this is my last contribution to the woodpecker and jay (extended) week. It isn't the best shot, but I wanted to include this Arizona Woodpecker because it is so different from most, and since its US range is so limited, to the very southeast corner of Arizona, it's not one that most people have seen. It is the only woodpecker with a solid brown back. The red on its head indicates that it is a male. It is an uncommon resident of foothills and mountain canyons, usually in pine-oak woodlands. I hope you haven't gotten sick of all the woodpeckers and jays--until Wayne and I started this, I hadn't realized how many of these birds I had photographed. It has been fun for me to share these with you, and to see Wayne's posts as well. 9/24/19 Judith Sparhawk

Lewis's Woodpecker

For jay and woodpecker week, here is a Lewis's Woodpecker--quite different from most woodpeckers with his pink breast, red face, and shiny green back and head. They sometimes winter in my local mountains. Hope I'm not stepping on Wayne's toes--this bird does occasionally winter in parts of Texas, but it is not in its usual range. A couple of years ago there were about 25 of these birds wintering at Silverwood Lake, in the San Bernardino mountains. They were flying all over, from tree to tree--I didn't know where to focus my camera first! 9/20/19 Judith Sparhawk

Red-breasted Sapsucker

Keeping in Wayne's theme of the week of jays and woodpeckers, this is a Red-breasted Sapsucker, photographed in the east side of the Sierras. It is perched by its sap wells described by Wayne yesterday--as sap seeps into the wells, it "sucks" up the sap with that specialized tongue. This sapsucker lives in coniferous and mixed forests in west coastal mountain ranges. One identifying marker for sapsuckers as compared to other woodpecker, is the long white wing patch. 9/18/19 Judith Sparhawk

Acorn Woodpecker at Nest

While hiking in Madera Canyon in Arizona, I spotted this female Acorn Woodpecker. She had flown to the nest hole with food in her bill, and had put her head in the hole several times, as if feeding young, but I never saw the babies. The tree trunk appears to have been well used by these birds. You can tell that this is a female, because of the black band on the forehead--if it were a male, the red patch would come further forward, with the white facial markings meeting the red. 9/16/19 Judith Sparhawk

Nuttall's Woodpecker x3

This is a male Nuttall's Woodpecker that nested in a local park here a few years ago. This species is the local counterpart to the Ladder-backed WP that Wayne posted a couple of days ago. The Ladder-back lives in the desert environments, with the Nuttall's living in local mountains , inland, and coastal California. It has more black on its face, extensive black on its neck, and narrower white stripes on its back. The two photos on the right were taken during the time the male was pecking out the nest hole. You can see that he had to go through some gymnastics as the hole got deeper. The one on the left was after the young were hatched and he had gone in to feed them, and was looking out before leaving the nest. You can see the passage of time by how the budding branches had leafed out by the time this shot was taken. 9/23/19 Judith Sparhawk

Now Where Should I Put This One? - Judith Sparhawk

This is a different Acorn Woodpecker from the one I posted yesterday. So many people said they had never heard of this type of food storage by woodpeckers, I decided to show one of the larger acorn "grocery stores" at the park I visited the other day. When I first arrived at the park there were 4 or 5 of these woodpeckers working on the storage system. I zoomed in on this one, holding an acorn in her bill, maybe contemplating where this one will go. It is a female, based on the black bar across her forehead, in front of the red cap. The bird isn't as sharp in this shot as in yesterday's, but it is a good example of the acorn storage. Trees like this are used year after year, and the acorns are used for food in seasons when fresh ones are not available. Imagine the work that went into making all the holes and fitting the acorns into them. I understand that as the acorns dry, they become loose, and they are often moved from one hole to another to assure a snug fit; thus they are constantly being worked on. 10/22/20 My website: www.sparhawkphotography.com

Acorn Woodpecker - Judith Sparhawk

I was in Oak Glen today, checking out the areas that burned recently. The firefighters did an amazing job of keeping the fire out of the town, although the hillsides burned right to the edge of town. While I was there I stopped at a park that has many old oak trees, and therefore lots of acorns and Acorn Woodpeckers. I probably saw at least 30 or more just in the park. This shot is of one of the males tending to his stores of acorns stashed in the trunk of a tree. One tree there was just riddled with holes stuffed with acorns. Although I knew they did this, I had never actually seen the process in action. I was glad to get a shot of it. 10/21/20 My website: www.sparhawkphotography.com

Gila Woodpecker - Judith Sparhawk

This is the bird I was happy to find in Cattle Call Park in Brawley, CA (yesterday's post). It's not a great shot, but was the best I could do. The birds are noisy and obvious when they are around, but fly away often and usually high into the trees. This is a female, without the distinctive small red patch on the top of the male's head. 6/6/20 My website: www.sparhawkphotography.com