Re: OT - Bird question
gardenchat@hort.net
  • Subject: Re: OT - Bird question
  • From: P* E* <g*@gmail.com>
  • Date: Tue, 15 Dec 2009 19:25:26 -0600
Don't see anything in the Texas bird book that sounds like your bird except
the ladder back.  It does note that "black triangle framing white cheek is
distinctive, red crown & forehead".    Check out its face next time you see
it and that should tell you if you have a ladder back.  They are common in
Texas except in East Texas.  I guess I'll have to look at mine more closely,
I thought they were all downies and one lone red head.  Be really cool if
you had something rare!

On 12/15/09, Donna <gossiper@sbcglobal.net> wrote:
>
> Wish I had an answer for you, but I don't.  Guessing, it either got it self
> off track, or some vacationer brought it back and then released it.  In
> either
> case, with winter coming, this isn't a good thing.
>
> hope you get a picture.
>
> Donna
>
> --- On Tue, 12/15/09, Aplfgcnys@aol.com <Aplfgcnys@aol.com> wrote:
>
>
> From: Aplfgcnys@aol.com <Aplfgcnys@aol.com>
> Subject: [CHAT] OT - Bird question
> To: gardenchat@hort.net
> Date: Tuesday, December 15, 2009, 12:44 PM
>
>
> 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
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
> To sign-off this list, send email to majordomo@hort.net with the
> message text UNSUBSCRIBE GARDENCHAT
>
>


-- 
Pam Evans
Kemp TX
zone 8A

---------------------------------------------------------------------
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