Re: OT - Bird question
gardenchat@hort.net
  • Subject: Re: OT - Bird question
  • From: j* s* <i*@q.com>
  • Date: Tue, 15 Dec 2009 12:50:56 -0800
I don't know anything about it, Auralie, but I think I'd start here... http://www.birds.cornell.edu/

On Dec 15, 2009, at 10:44 AM, Aplfgcnys@aol.com wrote:


The last time I had a bird question I went to a Birding list and was
given a rather off-putting response - why didn't I look it up in a good birding guide? Since I have practically every birding guide in print (and 
some old ones that are no longer in print) and had exhausted my
references, I felt that was a bit unhelpful.  So I am asking my good
friends, in the hopes that one or more of you will have a thought in
the matter.
We regularly have three kinds of woodpeckers at the feeders - Downys,
Red-Bellies, and Hairys. These come in large numbers.  It is not
uncommon to see five Downys taking turns, or being defensive of, the
suet cake. They also eat sunflower hearts from the tube feeder, but that is not their primary focus. Several times this fall I have noticed a bird at the tube feeder that at first glance seemed to be a female Downy, but on further observation didn't fit. This bird is the size of a Downy and has black-and-white markings on the back and head, but a definitely reddish- 
brown chest.  Downys have white chests.  My research in the birding
guides at first didn't produce much, but the very excellent Sibley Guide 
to Birds has a picture of a Ladder-backed Woodpecker that seems to
fill the bill (no pun intended). I hadn't seen the bird for several daya, 
but she
was back today, and with my binocs I could even see the tuft of brownish feathers at the base of the beak. The problem with this identification is 
that Ladderbacked Woodpeckers are native to the Southwestern deserts.
What would one be doing in the Hudson Valley of New York?
Auralie

---------------------------------------------------------------------
To sign-off this list, send email to majordomo@hort.net with the
message text UNSUBSCRIBE GARDENCHAT




Inland Jim
Willamette Valley

---------------------------------------------------------------------
To sign-off this list, send email to majordomo@hort.net with the
message text UNSUBSCRIBE GARDENCHAT
Other Mailing lists | Author Index | Date Index | Subject Index | Thread Index