Woodpeckers

Male Red-Belly Woodpecker at the feeder

This winter as we go into spring, one of the groups of birds I have had the chance to watch a lot are the woodpeckers. Nothing rare or fancy, but the common 4 at my feeders and around the yard, are many Downy, Hairy, Red-Bellied woodpeckers and Flickers. In the last two weeks, they have started vocalizing more, the flicker particularly loud can be heard from a ways away. Although some of these photos are from the last year, I have had a lot of nice close encounters with the birds lately, usually while doing chores around the yard, or carrying buckets of maple sap back to the house and no free hands to hold a camera. I was hoping to have for this post but have been unable to capture, is my spark bird, the Pileated Woodpecker who has done several very close fly by's, and has been incredible to watch - boy are they big. I have found many trees in the forest, carved in their typical large rectangle holes from old nests. Hopefully I find a fresh one this year.

Male Red-Belly taking a break from carving out his nest to people watch

Hairy Woodpecker - very similar markings to the Downy but generally larger and larger/longer bill.

Male Hairy Woodpecker

Poor image of a Hairy Woodpecker in flight but giving a nice look at their wing feathers

Juvenile Downy Woodpecker from last June

Male Northern Flicker (yellow shafted - western flickers have a red backed tail )

Downy male from last spring

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