Monday, January 3, 2011

A Male Hairy Woodpecker of The Vermilon River. A Post to My World Tuesday.





Not to be confused with the Downey, the Hairy Woodpecker is larger; has a beak almost the size of his head, and white tail feathers. A female is identical, only lacking the red patch of the male Hairy Woodpecker.

An amazingly efficient bird that overwinters here, it can be seen in the forest, or at the suet bird feeder. I say efficient because as the pictures show the bird is relentless in his search of prey. As well he is especially adapted to it. The beak is as long as his head, but even more remarkable, is his tongue which is barbed, and spear like. Amazingly long, it, in fact, is coiled around his eye sockets, and shoots down the hole he has made in the tree to extract the larvae.

The best source of information is: Life Histories of North American Birds @ http://birdsbybent.com/ch71-81hairywp.html.

A Post to My world Tuesday. For more sites click here: http://showyourworld.blogspot.com/

42 comments:

  1. Hi! beautiful pictures.. interesting bird..
    Greetings..

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  2. Fascinating about his ability to feed himself in the winter. I was thinking he looked very determined (in the last two shots) but had no idea he is so specially evolved. Wonderful.
    -- K

    Kay, Alberta, Canada
    An Unfittie's Guide to Adventurous Travel

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  3. A very interesting and beautiful bird indeed and your photos are terrific as always, Gary! Enjoy your new year and thank you for your visits/comments! Always appreciated!

    Sylvia

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  4. Great series, Gary. Although the markings are similar, I don't think our Acorn Woodpeckers have that big a beak. Now I curious, I'll have to pull up a picture of the Acorn.

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  5. We have both hairy and downy woodpeckers that live at our feeders year-round. They truly are wonderful birds. Did you also know they also LOVE shelled peanuts?

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  6. the red on his head is eye-catching. happy new year.

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  7. Wonderful shots of the hairy woodpecker. I have downy and red-bellied woodpeckers, as well as flickers but I haven't seen a hairy woodpecker in my yard.

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  8. Wonderful series of shots of the bird in action.

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  9. Terrific shots...as always. These birds are critically endangered here in Sweden, mainly due to the lack of suitable biotopes.

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  10. Great Woodpecker shots, and thanks for the mention on my site.

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  11. Good shots!!! Really interesting and very informative!!1

    Thanks,
    Simona
    http://brisbanetuttigg.blogspot.com/

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  12. Nice photos. That tongue sounds scary, I wouldn't want it anywhere near me!

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  13. Beautiful shots,I love seeing birds in their natural enviroment.I have the smaller Downey here at my feeder,although the Hairy has been seen in our area,just not by me,yet,phylliso

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  14. I always enjoy seeing your beautiful photos of birds. Sometimes I wonder how you managed to photograph birds since I am not good at it:)
    Thanks for sharing and have a wonderful day.
    Yoshi

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  15. Well, I should be following your FANTASTIC blog from now on. I wonder why I haven't so far...

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  16. Gary, Great captures of the Hairy and information!

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  17. this one is rather similar to out Great spotted woodpecker. But I think yours are cuter. :) Great shots Gary. They have a habit of going around the trunk out os sight. :(

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  18. To Dejemonos Sorprender: Thanks for the visit and kind words.

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  19. To Kay L. Davies: Almost obsessive in search for food, don't you think.

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  20. To Sylvia K. Thanks for the visit and kind words.

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  21. To Martha Z. I'll be interested to hear about your acorn woodpecker.

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  22. To EG WOW: Yes there is some territory overlap, but there are apparently no hybirds. I read that somewhere.

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  23. To Photo Cache: Thanks for the visit. The female without the patch is pretty dramatic also.

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  24. To Carver: There have been sightings of redbellied woodpeckers up here recently. They're a beautiful bird also.

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  25. To Rajesh: Thanks for the visit and I'm enjoying your tour of India.

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  26. To Randi: That's unfortunate. I can't imagine doing without these guys.

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  27. Hi Bob: Keep us up to date on your struggles to protect the forest of Dean.

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  28. To Simona Albanese: Italy's loss is Australia's gain. Thanks for the visit.

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  29. To Al: When you see them going at a tree they do look slightly demented.

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  30. Hi Karen. Thanks for the visit, and glad you enjoyed the photos.

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  31. To phylliso: Hope you get to see him/her upclose.

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  32. Great series, Gary. You get the sense of him working really hard! I didn't know about the tongue curling around the eye socket, ready to shoot out, I guess.

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  33. Hi Yoshi. From you that's tall praise, and I'm off to join your site.

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  34. Hi Jean. Nice to have you back. Boom & Gary.

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  35. To NatureFootstep: They do tend to move around to the wrong side of the tree. Thanks for the visit.

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  36. Hi Hilke. That's a really good article I sited. I must be getting really series sounding scholarly and all.

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  37. I found wood pecker so hard to get pictures of. Congrats on that set, it is beautiful... Looks like you are getting the same kind of light than us ;-)

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  38. I think you are darker than we are but your temperatures,where you are, are similiar to ours, because the gulf stream moderates your climate. The forest here has a good amount of birch and aspen that do not have long life spans and provide exceptionally forage and housing for these guys, so they're common.

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  39. Nice photos of the woodpecker. They are similar in appearance but the few times I've seen a hairy the larger size has been immediately noticeable. But any excuse to take a closer look is good, right?

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  40. Wonderful photos. Great blog.

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  41. Thanks Jeremy for the visit and words.

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