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The Red-breasted Sapsucker (Sphyrapicus ruber) and the Red-naped Sapsucker (Sphyrapicus nuchalis) were considered different forms of the Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (Sphyrapicus varius) until 1983 when they were split into separate species. They are called sapsuckers because they create sap wells in the bark of woody plants and feed on that sap. The bird shown above arrived [...]

Lewis’s Woodpecker (Melanerpes lewis) In Flight, photos by Larry Jordan Driving home from work last week I finally saw my first Lewis’s Woodpecker (Melanerpes lewis) of the fall.  Lucky for me, these beautiful and unusual woodpeckers can be found nearly year round in the oak savannah along the road I travel daily.  I consider myself extremely blessed as [...]

Alex Washoe is a freelance writer and bookseller in Seattle, WA.  who can be found regularly at the bird and wildlife blog Birdland West. However, he’s been known to share his perspicacious avian observations around the web, including right here! Last time, Alex asked us to Consider the Chickadee. Today, he talks about a crazy woodpecker… A [...]

Picus viridis, the European Green Woodpecker is a bird that I longed to see during my early days as a feeder watcher. They never visited my little sack of nuts however and I had to venture beyond my bedroom window to find one. Green Woodpeckers prefer to eat ants and will more usually be found feeding [...]

Short answer: The woodpecker is most likely not crazy and noshing on the house is not what the woodpecker has in mind.  Woodpeckers could be pecking on homes for a variety of reasons, all of which can drive a non birder a bit batty. Talk about pesky, a Northern Flicker like the bird above liked [...]

On a recent trip down memory lane in the form of searching through old photos from my trip to Honduras I serendipitously stumbled upon a series of shots of a woodpecker feeding from flower blossoms in a tree.  I was relatively certain that the bird was a Golden-fronted Woodpecker Melanerpes aurifrons but, time and memory [...]

The typical woodpecker, with its coloration of black, white, and red, is ingrained into our brains as birders.  We all have our familiar species and we all know our local woodpeckers well enough that a quick glimpse is often all we need to identify them.  Because many of our common woodpeckers are such a regular [...]

Way back on 30 October of last year a Lewis’s Woodpecker was seen coming to a backyard bird feeder in Ontario County, New York, and was quickly identified.  Why is that awesome?  Well, first of all, Lewis’s Woodpecker is one of the most amazing woodpeckers in North America, with a color scheme of pink, red, [...]

In the southeast United States, the woodpecker that gets all the attention is the one with the red cockade.  Rightly so I guess, it is, after all, a federally endangered species and limited to a few fragments of pine barrens habitat across the south, but we in Dixie have remarkable numbers of other woodpeckers too [...]

The Nuttall’s Woodpecker (Picoides nuttallii) is found primarily in the oak woodlands of California and northern Baja California. It just so happens that I also live in the oak woodlands of California and was able to see these little woodpeckers feeding their young at their tree cavity nest last year. This year, they are coming [...]

The concept of endemism, as it pertains to ecologists (and birders are nothing if not amateur ecologists), is tossed around somewhat carelessly.  Seemingly simply put, it’s a reference to a species found in some sort of defined zone be that as well defined as an island in the ocean or as nebulous as a patch [...]

With Brown-headed Nuthatch ticked off my life list I was excited to get out and about and see my life Red-cockaded Woodpecker.  Nate arrived at my aunt and uncle’s house just a couple of minutes after my sighting and we were off to Southern Pines, North Carolina, home of the Weymouth Woods-Sandhills Nature Preserve, the [...]

Several times over the last couple of years I have had non-birder acquaintances ask me about the “bird with polka dots,” “a bird on my lawn with polka dots,” or “the polka dot bird.”  In Golden Wings, an anthology of birding tales by Pete Dunne, one of his stories is called “A Flicker Day for [...]

Wow!  In my walk in Forest Park this morning I was shocked and amazed to hear and then see a Pileated Woodpecker!  They are not at all expected in Queens, and though I have seen Red-bellied Woodpeckers, Downy Woodpeckers, Hairy Woodpeckers, Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers, and Northern Flickers in Queens I had never spotted a Pileated Woodpecker [...]

To the consummate birder, travel equals opportunity. Any trip, be it for business, pleasure, or obligation, opens the door to the possibility of new birds. Some will be ones you’ve never seen while others just haven’t been seen for a while. In either instance, the consummate birder acts swiftly and decisively to maximize the birding [...]

While watching the birds at the feeders in Prospect Park on Sunday I heard a couple of blackbirds call to each other as they flew overhead.  I was pretty sure they were Red-winged Blackbirds but I wanted a look to make sure so I grabbed my stuff and followed to where I was pretty sure [...]

As long as the ivory-bill’s existence remains ambiguous, North America’s reigning woodpecker must be the Pileated Woodpecker.  This hulking beauty, black and white with a preposterously scarlet crest, is a most pleasing presence across much of the United States and Canada. That crazy coiffure along with its whinnying laugh betray this bird’s claim to fame [...]

Waking up early was easy on my last day in Greifswald as I had slept well after over imbibing a bit the previous night (apparently whenever you order food or drinks or look like you need one proprietors of restaurants in Greifswald give you a free shot). Hendrik and I met up at a more [...]

Since I decided in June to make this year as big a birding year as possible in New York State I have been putting far too much effort into finding species that, seemingly, do not want to be found. Especially the two woodpeckers, American Three-toed and Black-backed, that in New York State occur only in [...]

About a month ago, I was singing the praises of some ravishing redheads I ran into on Long Island. Those fine specimens showed rich auburn, the color one usually means when describing heads of red. Well, I just met a redhead flashing a shade of crimson found only in a bottle or, better yet, on [...]