Ian’s Bird of the Week – Black Woodpecker

June 27, 2012 by Ian

Black Woodpecker (Dryocopus martius) by Ian 1

Ian’s Bird of the Week – Black Woodpecker ~ by Ian Montgomery

Newsletter – 6/26/12

I said last week that my main target in Finland the Black Woodpecker was another story. It’s a story that started 50 years ago when I started bird watching in Ireland as a teenager and received, as a Christmas present in 1962, the classic Guy Mountfort Field Guide to the Birds of Britain and Europe. It had, for its time, superb colour plates of all the European bird species by Roger Peterson. Some of these birds were to this Irish teenager unbelievably exotic and, living on a woodpecker-free island, I was struck by the woodpecker page in general and the huge Black Woodpecker in particular (I still have the field guide):

The concept of a bucket list (things to do before you ‘kick the bucket’) hadn’t been articulated then, but the Black Woodpecker went straight onto mine. So, when the only route that Qantas could offer me a few months ago for a frequent-flyer ticket in the general direction of Ireland was on Finnair via Helsinki, I immediately thought ‘Black Woodpecker’ (and ‘owls’, another great page in the field guide).

In fact finding birds such as woodpeckers and owls in the endless forests of Finland proved very difficult, so eventually I went out with an excellent Finnature guide, Antti (Finnish for Andrew) and a delightful English birding couple in the Kuusamo region. It was a very bad year for owls (owl years are very dependent on cycles in the vole population) but Antti did eventually find us a distant Pygmy Owl and, last bird of all, showed us the nesting site of a pair of Black Woodpeckers.

Black Woodpecker (Dryocopus martius) by Ian 2

We were treated to a view of the male – the female lacks the red crown, having on a small red patch on the back of the head – arriving to feed the young, but there then followed a long period without any activity and, as it was time to return to the hotel for breakfast, I returned later on my own so that I could photograph them at my leisure. Again, the male arrived (second photo) and three hungry chicks appeared at the nest entrance. The male then fed them, presumably by regurgitation – third photo – as he didn’t appear to be carrying any food when he arrived.

Black Woodpecker (Dryocopus martius) by Ian 3

At 45-50cm/18-20in in length, these are crow-sized birds are the largest Eurasian Woodpecker and comparable in size to the related Pileated Woodpecker of North America. Their white bill is 5cm/2in in length and an impressive implement. They usually dig a new nest hollow each year, but Antti told us that this pair had used the same one for two years running. The Black Woodpecker is quite widespread in mature forest in Eurasia and is expanding its range.

Black Woodpecker (Dryocopus martius) by Ian 4

After feeding the young, the male left the nest for several minutes and then returned and entered the hollow. Nothing further happened for over half an hour until the female, who had been in the nest all along, emerged and flew off (fourth photo). The nest was in a tree on a quiet road outside a house, so I was able to watch it in comfort from my rental car (fifth photo), the red arrow indicating the location of the nest.

Black Woodpecker (Dryocopus martius) by Ian 5

So, my visit to Finland reached a satisfactory conclusion and the Black Woodpecker lived up to expectations. Three days later I flew to Dublin, where I am now to join the rest of the family and await the arrival of the first member of the next generation. My niece went into hospital yesterday and the arrival of the baby, ten days overdue, is anticipated either tonight or tomorrow.

Best wishes,

Ian
**************************************************
Ian Montgomery, Birdway Pty Ltd,
454 Forestry Road, Bluewater, Qld 4818
Tel 0411 602 737 ian@birdway.com.au
Check the latest website updates:
http://www.birdway.com.au/#updates
**************************************************

Lee’s Addition:

The trees of the LORD are full of sap; the cedars of Lebanon, which he hath planted; Where the birds make their nests: as for the stork, the fir trees are her house. (Psalms 104:16-17 KJV)

Congratulations on a new generation beginning. Also obtaining another of your bucket list birds. What a neat bird. That camera lens is something else!

Thanks again, Ian, for sharing your birdwatching photography with us. We await your next adventure in to the domain of the birds.

The Woodpeckers are in the Picidae – Woodpeckers Family of the Piciformes Order. Check out Ian’s many Woodpecker photos.

Birds Vol 1 #4 – The California Woodpecker

April 24, 2012 by Lee

California Woodpecker for Birds Illustrated by Color Photography, 1897

Birds Illustrated by Color Photography – Revisited

Vol 1. April, 1897 No. 4

THE CALIFORNIA WOODPECKER.

I may not be as pretty a bird as my red-headed cousin but I’m just as busy. My home is in the west among the pines on the mountains. I do not visit the east at all.

Of course I like insects and fruits just as my relations do, but I like best to eat acorns. You know, if I left the acorns on the trees and just got enough to eat at one time, after a while I would have a hard time finding any. They would drop off and roll away and get lost among the leaves and grasses. What would you do if you were I?

I have a very sharp bill, you see. So I can peck and peck at the tree until I have made a hole which will hold an acorn. Sometimes I fill my store house quite full in this way. You can see how they look in the picture. When I want to get at the meat in the acorn I drive the nut into a crack and split the shell. Then I have my breakfast easily enough.

Some of the other birds like acorns too—but I think they should find and store away their own and not try to take mine. I do not like to quarrel and so have many friends.

Then I have my nest to look after. I make it as my cousin does, by digging into a tree, first a passage way or hall—then a living-room. There are the four or five white eggs and there too soon are the little baby-birds to be taken care of. Now, have I not a great deal of work? Do you not think I am quite as busy as my cousin?

Acorn Woodpecker (Melanerpes formicivorus) by Raymond Barlow

THE CALIFORNIA WOODPECKER.

HIS fine specimen of the Woodpecker is by far the most sociable representative of the family in the United States, and it is no unusual occurrence to see half a dozen or more in a single tree. It is also a well disposed bird, and seldom quarrels or fights with its own kind, or with smaller birds, but it attacks intruders on its winter stores with such vigor and persistence that they are compelled to vacate the premises in a hurry. Its manner of flight and call notes closely resemble those of the Red-Headed Woodpecker, and, like it, it loves to cling to some dead limb near the top of a tree and drum for hours at a time. It is one of the most restless of birds, and never appears to be at a loss for amusement, and no other bird belonging to this family could possibly be more industrious.

During the Spring and Summer its food consists, to some extent, of insects, including grasshoppers, ants, beetles, and flies—varied with cherries, apples, figs, berries and green corn. Acorns form its principal food during the greater portion of the year. Of these it stores away large numbers in the thick bark of pines, in partly rotten limbs of oak trees, telegraph poles, and fence posts. A writer in the “Auk” says of its habits: “It is essentially a bird of the pines, only occasionally descending to the cotton woods of low valleys. The oaks, which are scattered through the lower pine zone, supply a large share of its food. Its habit of hoarding food is well known, and these stores are the source of unending quarrels with its numerous feathered enemies. I have laid its supplies under contribution myself, when short of provisions and lost from the command on which I had been traveling, by filling my saddlebags with half-dried acorns from under the loose bark of a dead pine.”

The California Woodpecker is found in western Mexico, northern Lower California, and north through California into western Oregon. So far as is known the eastern limit of its range is the Santa Fe Mountains.

Its nest is usually from fifteen to twenty-five feet from the ground, excavated on the side of a branch of a good sized oak or sycamore. Breeding commences in April or May, according to locality. Both sexes assist in the excavation. The entrance hole is about one and three-fourths inches in diameter, perfectly circular, and is sometimes chiseled through two or three inches of solid wood before the softer and decayed core is reached. The inner cavity is greatly enlarged as it descends, and varies from eight to twenty-four inches in depth. The eggs rarely exceed four or five, and are pure white in color.

The most remarkable fact concerning this species is the peculiar manner in which it stores acorns. The thick bark of large sugar and other pines has been seen completely riddled with small holes. A section of a partly decayed oak limb, three feet two inches long and five and one-half inches in diameter, contained 255 holes. Each hole is intended to hold a single acorn. The acorns fit quite accurately, are driven in point foremost, and are not readily extracted. Sweet acorns are selected. To get at their contents the acorns are carried to a convenient tree where a limb has been broken off, driven into a suitable crevice, split open, and the outer hull removed. Truly the California Woodpecker is no idler or bungler, nor is he a free-booter, like the noisy, roystering Jay. He makes an honest living, and provides for the evil day which comes alike to man and beast.

Acorn Woodpecker (Melanerpes formicivorus) by Reinier Munguia

Lee’s Addition:

Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? (Matthew 6:26 NKJV)

Go to the ant, you sluggard! Consider her ways and be wise, Which, having no captain, Overseer or ruler, Provides her supplies in the summer, And gathers her food in the harvest. (Proverbs 6:6-8 NKJV)

Wise people store up knowledge, But the mouth of the foolish is near destruction. The rich man’s wealth is his strong city; The destruction of the poor is their poverty. The labor of the righteous leads to life, The wages of the wicked to sin. (Proverbs 10:14-16 NKJV)

The adult Acorn Woodpecker (Melanerpes formicivorus) is a medium-sized woodpecker and has a brownish-black head, back, wings and tail, white forehead, throat, belly and rump. The eyes are white.There is a small part on the small of their backs were there are some green feathers. The adult male has a red cap starting at the forehead, whereas females have a black area between the forehead and the cap. The white neck, throat and forehead patches are distinctive identifiers.When flying,they take a few flaps of their wings and drop a foot or so.You can see white circles on the wings while flying. Acorn woodpeckers have a call that is almost like they are laughing.

The breeding habitat is forested areas with oaks in the hills of coastal areas and foothills of California and the southwestern United States south to Colombia. Acorn woodpeckers, as their name implies, depend heavily on acorns for food. In some parts of their range (e.g., California), the woodpeckers create granaries or “acorn trees” by drilling holes in dead trees, dead branches, telephone poles and wooden buildings. The woodpeckers then collect acorns and find a hole that is just the right size for the acorn. As acorns dry out, they are moved to smaller holes and granary maintenance requires a significant amount of the bird’s time. They also feed on insects, sap, and fruit.

Acorn Woodpecker (Melanerpes formicivorus) with Hoard or Grainary WikiC

This bird is a permanent resident throughout its range. They may relocate to another area if acorns are not readily available. It is sedentary and very sociable. Acorn Woodpeckers like many other species are threatened by habitat loss and degradation. Competition for nest cavities by non-native species is an ongoing threat in urbanized areas. These include mature forests with oaks capable of producing large mast crops and places for the woodpeckers to nest, roost, and store mast. Residents are encouraged to preserve mature oak and pine-oak stands of trees and to provide dead limbs and snags for nesting,roosting and granary sites to help preserve the Acorn Woodpeckers population.

Walter Lantz is believed to have patterned the call of his cartoon character Woody Woodpecker on that of the acorn woodpecker, while patterning his appearance on that of the Pileated Woodpecker which has a prominent crest.

Woodpeckers belong to the Picidae Family which includes woodpeckers, piculets, wrynecks, and sapsuckers. The family has about 200 species.

Birds Illustrated by Color Photograhy Vol 1 April 1897 No 4 – Cover

Birds Illustrated by Color Photography – Revisited – Introduction

The above article is the first article in the monthly serial for February 1897 “designed to promote Knowledge of Bird-Live.” These include Color Photography, as they call them, today they are drawings. There are at least three Volumes that have been digitized by Project Gutenberg.

To see the whole series of – Birds Illustrated by Color Photography – Revisited

(Information from Wikipedia and other internet sources)

Next Article – The Piedbill Grebe

Previous Article – Bird Day In The Schools

ABC’s Of The Gospel

Links:

Picidae – Woodpeckers Family

Piciformes Order

Acorn Woodpecker – What Bird

Woodpecker – Wikipedia

Birds Vol 1 #3 – The Flicker

March 13, 2012 by Lee

Flicker

Birds Illustrated by Color Photography – Revisited

Vol 1. March, 1897 No. 3

THE FLICKER.

GREAT variety of names does this bird possess. It is commonly known as the Golden Winged Woodpecker, Yellow-shafted Flicker, Yellow Hammer, and less often as High-hole or High-holer, Wake-up, etc. In suitable localities throughout the United States and the southern parts of Canada, the Flicker is a very common bird, and few species are more generally known. “It is one of the most sociable of our Woodpeckers, and is apparently always on good terms with its neighbors. It usually arrives in April, occasionally even in March, the males preceding the females a few days, and as soon as the latter appear one can hear their voices in all directions.”

The Flicker is an ardent wooer. It is an exceedingly interesting and amusing sight to see a couple of males paying their addresses to a coy and coquettish female; the apparent shyness of the suitors as they sidle up to her and as quickly retreat again, the shy glances given as one peeps from behind a limb watching the other—playing bo-peep—seem very human, and “I have seen,” says an observer, “few more amusing performances than the courtship of a pair of these birds.” The defeated suitor takes his rejection quite philosophically, and retreats in a dignified manner, probably to make other trials elsewhere. Few birds deserve our good will more than the Flicker. He is exceedingly useful, destroying multitudes of grubs, larvæ, and worms. He loves berries and fruit but the damage he does to cultivated fruit is very trifling.

The Flicker begins to build its nest about two weeks after the bird arrives from the south. It prefers open country, interspersed with groves and orchards, to nest in. Any old stump, or partly decayed limb of a tree, along the banks of a creek, beside a country road, or in an old orchard, will answer the purpose. Soft wood trees seem to be preferred, however. In the prairie states it occasionally selects strange nesting sites. It has been known to chisel through the weather boarding of a dwelling house, barns, and other buildings, and to nest in the hollow space between this and the cross beams; its nests have also been found in gate posts, in church towers, and in burrows of Kingfishers and bank swallows, in perpendicular banks of streams. One of the most peculiar sites of his selection is described by William A. Bryant as follows: “On a small hill, a quarter of a mile distant from any home, stood a hay stack which had been placed there two years previously. The owner, during the winter of 1889-90, had cut the stack through the middle and hauled away one portion, leaving the other standing, with the end smoothly trimmed. The following spring I noticed a pair of flickers about the stack showing signs of wanting to make it a fixed habitation. One morning a few days later I was amused at the efforts of one of the pair. It was clinging to the perpendicular end of the stack and throwing out clipped hay at a rate to defy competition. This work continued for a week, and in that time the pair had excavated a cavity twenty inches in depth. They remained in the vicinity until autumn. During the winter the remainder of the stack was removed. They returned the following spring, and, after a brief sojourn, departed for parts unknown.”

From five to nine eggs are generally laid. They are glossy white in color, and when fresh appear as if enameled.

The young are able to leave the nest in about sixteen days; they crawl about on the limbs of the tree for a couple of days before they venture to fly, and return to the nest at night.

Northern Flicker (Colaptes auratus) Red-shafted ©WikiC

Lee’s Addition:

A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly: and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother. (Proverbs 18:24 KJV)

The Northern Flicker (Colaptes auratus) is a medium-sized member of the woodpecker family. It is native to most of North America, parts of Central America, Cuba, the Cayman Islands, and is one of the few woodpecker species that migrate. There are over 100 common names for the Northern Flicker. Among them are: Yellowhammer, clape, gaffer woodpecker, harry-wicket, heigh-ho, wake-up, walk-up, wick-up, yarrup, and gawker bird. Many of these names are attempts at imitating some of its calls.

The Northern Flicker is part of the genus Colaptes which encompasses 12 New-World woodpeckers. There are two living and one extinct subspecies of Colaptes auratus species. The existing sub-species were at one time considered separate species but they commonly interbreed where ranges overlap and are now considered one species by the American Ornithologists Union. Whether or not they are separate species is a well-known example of the species problem.

Northern Flicker (Colaptes auratus) Yellow shafted ©WikiC

The Yellow-shafted Flicker Colaptes auratus resides in eastern North America. They are yellow under the tail and underwings and have yellow shafts on their primaries. They have a grey cap, a beige face and a red bar at the nape of their neck. Males have a black moustache. Colaptes comes from the Greek verb colapt, to peck. Auratus is from the Latin root aurat, meaning “gold” or “golden” and refers to the bird’s underwing.

Under the name “Yellowhammer” it is the state bird of Alabama.

The Red-shafted Flicker Colaptes auratus cafer resides in western North America. They are red under the tail and underwings and have red shafts on their primaries. They have a beige cap and a grey face. Males have a red moustache.

According to the Audubon guide, “flickers are the only woodpeckers that frequently feed on the ground”, probing with their beak, also sometimes catching insects in flight. Although they eat fruits, berries, seeds and nuts, their primary food is insects. Ants alone can make up 45% of their diet. Other invertebrates eaten include flies, butterflies, moths, beetles, and snails. Flickers also eat berries and seeds, especially in winter, including poison oak and ivy, dogwood, sumac, wild cherry and grape, bayberries, hackberries, and elderberries, and sunflower and thistle seeds. Flickers often go after ants underground (where the nutritious larvae live), hammering at the soil the way other woodpeckers drill into wood. Their tongues can dart out 2 inches beyond the end of the bill to snare prey. As well as eating ants, flickers have a behavior called anting, during which they use the acid from the ants to assist in preening, as it is useful in keeping them free of parasites.

Campo Flicker (Colaptes campestris) by Dario Sanches

The Northern Flicker is in the Picidae – Woodpeckers Family of the Piciformes Order. There are 6 Flickers; the Northern, Gilded, Fernandina’s, Chilean, Andean, and Campo Flicker. The other subgenus of the Colaptes (Chrysoptilus) includes the Black-necked, Spot-breasted, Green-barred, Golden-olive, Gray-crowned, Bronze-winged, and the Crimson-mantled Woodpeckers. The whole Woodpecker family has 231 species.

Birds Illustrated by Color Photography – Revisited – Introduction

To see the whole series of – Birds Illustrated by Color Photography – Revisited

(Information from Wikipedia and other internet sources)

Next Article – The Bobolink

Previous Article – The Japan Pheasant

ABC’s of the Gospel

Links:

Birds of the World – Woodpeckers

Flicker – Wikipedia

Woodpecker – Wikipedia

Birds Vol 1 #2 – The Red-headed Woodpecker

February 9, 2012 by Lee

Red-headed Woodpecker (Melanerpes erythrocephalus) – Birds Illustrated

Birds Illustrated by Color Photography – Revisited

Vol 1. February, 1897 No. 2

THE RED HEADED WOODPECKER.

ERHAPS no bird in North America is more universally known than the Red Headed Woodpecker. He is found in all parts of the United States and is sometimes called, for short, by the significant name of Red Head. His tri-colored plumage, red, white and black, glossed with steel blue, is so striking and characteristic, and his predatory habits in the orchards and cornfields, and fondness for hovering along the fences, so very notorious, that almost every child is acquainted with the Red Headed Woodpecker. In the immediate neighborhood of large cities, where the old timber is chiefly cut down, he is not so frequently found. Wherever there is a deadening, however, you will find him, and in the dead tops and limbs of high trees he makes his home. Towards the mountains, particularly in the vicinity of creeks and rivers, these birds are extremely numerous, especially in the latter end of summer. It is interesting to hear them rattling on the dead leaves of trees or see them on the roadside fences, where they flit from stake to stake. We remember a tremendous and quite alarming and afterwards ludicrous rattling by one of them on some loose tin roofing on a neighbor’s house. This occurred so often that the owner, to secure peace, had the roof repaired.

They love the wild cherries, the earliest and sweetest apples, for, as is said of him, “he is so excellent a connoisseur in fruit, that whenever an apple or pear is found broached by him, it is sure to be among the ripest and best flavored. When alarmed he seizes a capital one by striking his open bill into it, and bears it off to the woods.” He eats the rich, succulent, milky young corn with voracity. He is of a gay and frolicsome disposition, and half a dozen of the fraternity are frequently seen diving and vociferating around the high dead limbs of some large trees, pursuing and playing with each other, and amusing the passerby with their gambols. He is a comical fellow, too, prying around at you from the bole of a tree or from his nesting hole therein.

Though a lover of fruit, he does more good than injury. Insects are his natural food, and form at least two thirds of his subsistence. He devours the destructive insects that penetrate the bark and body of a tree to deposit their eggs and larvae.

About the middle of May, he begins to construct his nest, which is formed in the body of large limbs of trees, taking in no material but smoothing it within to the proper shape and size. The female lays six eggs, of a pure white. The young appear about the first of June. About the middle of September the Red Heads begin to migrate to warmer climates, travelling at night time in an irregular way like a disbanded army and stopping for rest and food through the day.

The black snake is the deadly foe of the Red Head, frequently entering his nest, feeding upon the young, and remaining for days in possession.

“The eager school-boy, after hazarding his neck to reach the Woodpecker’s hole, at the triumphant moment when he thinks the nestlings his own, strips his arm, launches it down into the cavity, and grasping what he conceives to be the callow young, starts with horror at the sight of a hideous snake, almost drops from his giddy pinnacle, and retreats down the tree with terror and precipitation.”

Red-headed Woodpecker (Melanerpes erythrocephalus) ©USFWS

THE DRUMMER BIRD

My dear girls and boys:

The man who told me to keep still and look pleasant while he took my picture said I might write you a letter to send with it. You say I always keep on the other side of the tree from you. That is because someone has told you that I spoil trees, and I am afraid that you will want to punish me for it. I do not spoil trees. The trees like to have me come to visit them, for I eat the insects that are killing them. Shall I tell you how I do this?

I cling to the tree with my strong claws so sharply hooked. The pointed feathers of my tail are stiff enough to help hold me against the bark. Then my breast bone is quite flat, so that I may press close to the tree. When I am all ready you hear my r-r-rap—just like a rattle. My head goes as quickly as if it were moved by a spring. Such a strong, sharp bill makes the chips fly! The tiny tunnel I dig just reaches the insect.

Then I thrust out my long tongue. It has a sharp, horny tip, and has barbs on it too. Very tiny insects stick to a liquid like glue that covers my tongue. I suppose I must tell you that I like a taste of the ripest fruit and grain. Don’t you think I earn a little when I work so hard keeping the trees healthy?

I must tell you about the deep tunnel my mate and I cut out of a tree. It is just wide enough for us to slip into. It is not straight down, but bent, so that the rain cannot get to the bottom. There we make a nest of little chips for our five white eggs.

I should like to tell you one of the stories that some boys and girls tell about my red head. You will find it on another page of the book. Now I must fly away to peck for more bugs.

Your loving friend,
Woodpecker.

Red-headed Woodpecker (Melanerpes erythrocephalus) by Daves BirdingPix

Lee’s Addition:

If a bird’s nest happens to be before you along the way, in any tree or on the ground, with young ones or eggs, with the mother sitting on the young or on the eggs, you shall not take the mother with the young; (Deuteronomy 22:6 NKJV)

Not much to add to this one. The writer has told much about this Woodpecker. They are part of the Picadae Family in the Piciformes Order. Most woodpeckers are heard before they are found. They are either making their calls or you can hear them chipping away at the trees or “metal.”

Birds Illustrated by Color Photograhy Vol 1 February 1897 No 2 – Cover

Birds Illustrated by Color Photography – Revisited – Introduction

To see the whole series of – Birds Illustrated by Color Photography – Revisited

* (Information from Wikipedia and other internet sources)

Next Article – Mexican Mot Mot

Previous Article – The Swallow-Tailed Indian Roller

ABC’s of the Gospel

Links:

Red-headed Woodpecker – Wikipedia

Here are some more ads from the Birds Illustrated:

Birds Illustrated Ad – Feb

Ian’s Bird of the Week – Black-tailed Treecreeper

October 29, 2011 by Ian

Black-tailed Treecreeper (Climacteris melanurus) by Ian

Ian’s Bird of the Week – Black-tailed Treecreeper ~ by Ian Montgomery

Newsletter – 10/28/11

I hope you like albatrosses and penguins as I leave in less than 2 weeks for a boat-trip to the so-called Sub-Antarctic island south of New Zealand and Australia and seabirds will, I hope, dominate the bird of the week for some time to come. In the meantime, here is a real landlubber, the Black-tailed Treecreeper, from northwestern Australia. It’s range extends from northwestern Queensland (Cloncurry district) through the Top End of the Northern Territory to the Kimberley region of northern Western Australia, with an isolated population of a paler race slightly farther south in the Pilbara region.

Black-tailed Treecreeper (Climacteris melanurus) by Ian

This bird is a male with a black throat with white streaks and the photo shows well the huge rear claws that it uses to climb trees. The photo also shows that Australo-Papuan Treecreepers (Climacteridae Family) usually don’t rely on their tails as a prop, unlike the unrelated Northern Hemisphere Treecreepers (Certhiidae) and Woodpeckers (Picidae). This photo was taken in tropical forest in Kakadu but this species also occurs in much more arid country with only scattered trees and it will feed on the ground, as in the second photo, taken at McNamara’s Road between Mount Isa and Camooweal. This bird is also a male: females have pale throats, but I haven’t got a good photo of one.

McNamaras Road by Ian

The main ground cover here is a prickly grass usually called spinifex (Triodia) and this site, third photo, is famous for its Carpentarian Grasswrens, but I remember it better for a hard night’s camping with a punctured airbed on this fourth-failed and final foray here in search of these elusive grasswrens – final because I was shown the grasswrens at another site two days later by Brian Venables who has much better hearing than I have! (Carpentarian Grasswren)

Best wishes
Ian

—

Ian Montgomery, Birdway Pty Ltd,
454 Forestry Road, Bluewater, Qld 4818
Phone: 0411 602 737 +61-411 602 737
Preferred Email: ian@birdway.com.au
Website: http://birdway.com.au

Lee’s Addition:

I am glad Ian is the one camping in an area like that last photo. That prickly grass doesn’t look too inviting. Those neat photos of the Treecreeper are worth it though. Thanks for sacrificing your airbed for them.

In them the birds build their nests; the stork has her home in the fir trees. (Psalms 104:17 ESV)

The Climacteridae- Australian Treecreeper Family and the Certhiidae – Treecreepers Family are in the Passeriformes Order and the Picidae – Woodpeckers Family is in the Piciformes Order.

Ian’s Bird of the Week – Crimson-crested Woodpecker

May 30, 2011 by Ian

Crimson-crested Woodpecker (Campephilus melanoleucos) by Ian

Ian’s Bird of the Week – Crimson-crested Woodpecker ~ by Ian Montgomery

Newsletter – 5/29/11

Those of you who have been on the list for a few years might remember from earlier posts that I’ve led a woodpecker-deprived existence, having lived first in Ireland and since then in Australia. Woody Woodpecker captured my imagination at an early age and I’ve been fascinated with woodpeckers ever since.

I was updating the woodpecker galleries on the website http://www.birdway.com.au/picidae/index.htm and this one made me laugh, so I though I’d share it with you. In the first photo it looks as if it’s staring in guilty shock at the tree and saying “Whoops! (or something stronger) Did I do that?” The second photo follows the same theme with a puzzled “Where did that tree go?” If you can think of better captions, please share them with me at ian@birdway.com.au and I’ll publish the best one next week.

Crimson-crested Woodpecker (Campephilus melanoleucos) by Ian

The Crimson-crested Woodpecker (Campephilus melanoleucos) is 36cm/14in in length and a close relative of the larger (at least 48cm/19in) and legendary, maybe-extinct-maybe-not Ivory-billed Woodpecker of the southern USA (Campephilus principalis) about which there was so much excitement in 2004-5. The Crimson-crested is happily quite common with a wide range in northern South America. Campephilus incidentally means ‘grub loving’ as this group of woodpeckers finds the larvae of wood-boring beetles to their liking.

I photographed this Crimson-crested Woodpecker in 2005 from the dug-out canoe in the third photo, when staying at a lodge called Sani on the Rio Napo, a tributary of the Amazon, in eastern Ecuador. The lodge was on an oxbow lake away from the main river and the canoes, being very quiet, were ideal for bird watching though using a heavy (and expensive) 500mm lens in the canoe took some practice, not to mention recklessness.

Crimson-crested Woodpecker (Campephilus melanoleucos) by Ian Sani Canoe

Crimson-crested Woodpecker from Sani on the Rio Napo Canoe by Ian

Ireland happily is no longer a woodpecker-free zone as the Greater-spotted Woodpecker is in the process of colonising the country, after a big increase in the population in Britain, with successful breeding being report in Co. Down since 2005, Co. Wicklow since 2009 and Co. Wexford since 2010. See http://wlx.bright-server.com/do/ecco.py/view_item?listid=1&listcatid=1075&listitemid=8021&live=0 . We might have to wait a bit longer, though, for any Asian woodpeckers to come island-hopping across the Wallace line to Australia and eucalyptus mightn’t suit them.

I’ve started suppling photos of Australian birds to Guy Gibbon for a multimedia version of Pizzey and Knight for PCs and mobiles and I’ve also been given the task of sourcing photos that I can’t supply (both species and plumages). If you are interested, or know anyone who might be, I’d like to hear from you ian@birdway.com.au . Have a look at this News item on the website http://www.birdway.com.au/#aus_photos which has a link to the list of initially required species http://www.birdway.com.au/pdfs/wanted_species.pdf and links to similar publications by Guy covering British-Irish and Southern African birds.

Best wishes
Ian
—
Ian Montgomery, Birdway Pty Ltd,
454 Forestry Road, Bluewater, Qld 4818
Phone: 0411 602 737 +61-411 602 737
Preferred Email: ian@birdway.com.au
Website: http://birdway.com.au

Lee’s Addition:

Woody Woodpecker was also a favorite of mine. Here in the U. S., we have the Pileated Woodpecker (Dryocopus pileatus), which seems to be quite similar to this Crimson-crested. Pileated adults are (40 to 49 centimetres (16 to 19 in) long; 250 to 350 grams (8.8 to 12 oz) mass) are mainly black with a red crest and a white line down the sides of the throat. That compares to the 36cm/14in of the Crimson-crested. Apparently the Pileated is larger and in a different genus. There are 225 woodpeckers world-wide. The Piciformes Order has not only Woodpeckers – Picidae Family, but also eight other families.

The trees of the LORD are full of sap; the cedars of Lebanon, which he hath planted; Where the birds make their nests: as for the stork, the fir trees are her house. (Psalms 104:16-17 KJV)

Lee's Birdwatching Adventures Plus

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Tag Archives: Picidae

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