This morning we have a panoply of bird photos by reader Karen Bartelt. There was a mixup with the photos, so I’m doing best I can with the IDs. I’m sure, though, I messed up some of them, so I ask readers to help correct the woodpeckers. [JAC: I think all photos are properly labeled now.]
Most of the photos feature one of my favorite types of bird: woodpeckers!
Some recent visitors, mostly woodpeckers, to my yard in Washington, IL.Male and female red-bellied woodpeckers, Melanerpes carolinus:
Northern (yellow-shafted) flicker, male, Colaptus auratus:
Downy woodpecker, female, Picoides pubescens:
Hairy woodpecker, female, Picoides villosus:
Another yellow-shafted flicker:
Northern cardinal, male, Cardinalis cardinalis:
White-breasted nuthatch, male?, Sitta carolinensis:
The unidentified bird appears to be Collapses auratus, the Northern Flicker.
The Missouri Conservation Field Guide (on line) says, “America’s flickers used to be considered three different species, but in the 1980s biologists determined otherwise. Now, our eastern “yellow-shafted” flicker, the “red-shafted” flicker of the west and the “gilded flicker” of the southwest are all considered just “forms” of the same species: the northern flicker.”
OK – old bird book – sorry!
I think you might have switched the Downy Woodpecker and the Hairy Woodpecker. They’re very similar but the Hairy is the one with the much larger bill.
Yep, Karen said I did, and I also failed to identify one flicker. I think things are fixed now, thanks.
How do you pronounce “Melanerpes”? Does it rhyme with herpes?
Always love the woodpeckers!
Karen, you lucky duck! You get some great birds there. Thanks for sharing these wonderful photos with us.
Great photos!
A good lineup of photos! As always. I remember coming across a dead flicker when I was young. I was amazed at how beautiful they were.
Really nice pictures. For most of these birds, all I have to do is look out the window.
Be sure and feed the birds – the weather is pretty rough in the Midwest if you are a bird.
That cardinal portrait is really neat…it has an ethereal quality to it.
Yays for the woodpeckers!