A gorgeous male Red-Bellied Woodpecker, from Kengi. Melanerpes carolinus. This makes me miss Beauty, the one I had visit regularly one winter. Click for full size.
© Kengi. All rights reserved.
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A gorgeous male Red-Bellied Woodpecker, from Kengi. Melanerpes carolinus. This makes me miss Beauty, the one I had visit regularly one winter. Click for full size.
© Kengi. All rights reserved.
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*gasp* More scarlet! This is a beautiful shot, a beautiful bird! Thumbs way up, Kengi!
Definitely with rq here, that is a great shot! Kengi even caught the “name” feature here, the red belly feathers, which are usually impossible to see in the field (this is one bird that was definitely named from specimens, no-one looking at them in the field would call it that.)
One point of order, though: male Red-bellied; a female would have no red on the forehead.
Thank you for the compliments. I’ve been trying to get a good shot of the red belly for some time now and was very excited when this one turned out as well as it did.
They seem to like the hanging suet in the tree and the peanut feeders the most.
“The” @ 2:
Thanks for the correction! My head was full of the one who visited me one season, a lovely female.
Nice catch. A long beak, red head and belly, and we see another variation of the woodpecker black-and-white pattern.
Speaking of birding, today’s Google Doodle is about Phoebe Snetsinger!
Other than the red on the belly, it looks much like the flickers and ladder backs we get here in S Az.
Most woodpecker/flicker type birds do, I think it’s to do with the protein content due to their naturally preferred diet of grubs and the like. The only bird at our feeder that feeds exclusively on the lard is the woodpecker; pretty much ignores any and all seeds, though he goes for the peanut butter on occasion.
When, he needs something to get rid of the icky seed he just swallowed.
blf
I doubt the peanut butter will help much in getting rid of the icky seed. Eat a spoonful of peanut butter and see how well that washes down! :D
rq, I didn’t say it worked…
The mildly deranged penguin’s hypothesis is it simply banged its head a bit too hard, or on a some concrete, or on a duck(about the same thing. she maintains, albeit the duck is tastier & the concrete more intelligent), and is simply confused.