Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Birds I'm Watching: Nutall's Woodpecker

I figured out today that the small black-and-white woodpeckers we often see here are not downy woodpeckers or hairy woodpeckers--as I had thought them to be. These last two, I see from a careful look at the Western Birds book, have fairly broad white stripes longitudinally down their black backs. The small woodpeckers common here have a ladder-like horizontal pattern of white stripes across their backs. All three birds have a similar pattern of black and white on the head with a red crown. However, I see now--in a minor ornithological embarrassment--that I have misidentified these birds for many years. They are Nuttal's  woodpecker. 

The upside is that I get to add a new sighting to my list. I think that makes 34 species observed in the yard here.

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