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Woodpeckers are a fascinating family. They excavate nest holes, which later become homes for other birds and small mammals, making them a keystone species. There are 22 species of woodpeckers in the US and Canada. Red-headed Woodpecker 2. Red-headed Woodpecker 2. I have seen 21 of them.
It is hard to imagine any birder not liking woodpeckers – they are the “motherhood and apple pie” of the avian world. The Bearded Woodpecker (Mkuze, South Africa) does not really look any more bearded than many other woodpeckers. It is the most widespread woodpecker in Africa, claims the HBW.
The exploration of triads within the avifauna of Trinidad and Tobago has taken me through various families and species groups on this blog. On the smaller island of Tobago there are three species of woodpeckers and three species of woodcreepers – one of each is found on Tobago but not Trinidad.
Disbelief probably seems like the proper response to the idea that there are woodpeckers in New York City. After all, woodpeckers peck on trees, not skyscrapers. But even birders might be surprised to learn that eight species of woodpecker have graced New York City’s five boroughs with their presence!
This is a Green-barred Woodpecker , common and widespread throughout South America to the south of the Amazon River and to the east of the Andes. This form is thought to be a different species and the name Golden-bellied Woodpecker has been adopted by some.
Short answer: The woodpecker is most likely not crazy and noshing on the house is not what the woodpecker has in mind. Woodpeckers could be pecking on homes for a variety of reasons, all of which can drive a non birder a bit batty. So, why do woodpeckers peck on human made structures?
Why would I call these beautiful woodpeckers the “clowns of the avian world?” ” Besides the facial features of the Acorn Woodpecker ( Melanerpes formicivorus ) appearing somewhat clown-like, they are a joy to watch and some of their antics are sure to bring a smile to anyone’s face. www.youtube.com/watch?
I had taken the short drive to the park to search for a family of American Dippers sighted near the visitor center by a fellow birder a few days before. As I got out of my car, about fifty feet from Manzanita Lake, I heard the loud drumming of a woodpecker. It was July of 2012. It was a cool 48 degrees.
processed the entire genomes of 48 bird species and compared nearly 42 million base pairs of DNA (Hackett et al. ’s bird family tree in a new tab and follow along as you read. Now we move on to the Neognathae , which also has two very deep branches that lead to all the other living species of birds. Open Jarvis et al.’s
Well, I never did see a Black-backed Woodpecker on my trip, but they were on my mind… What could be more straightforward than the naming of woodpeckers? The name woodpecker itself is a basic behavioral description. Here are birds that peck at wood. The exceptions are still mighty prosaic.
Woodpeckers are phenomenally well-represented in Colombia and the country holds anything from 42 to 44 of the world’s woodpeckerspecies, depending on which list you follow. That’s over 20 % of all the woodpeckers found worldwide. Like the true woodpeckers, piculets share several traits common to the family.
It covers 403 species: 172 nonpasserine species and 231 passerine species in the Species Accounts, 198 species beautifully illustrated by the author in the Plates section. The scarcity of information on the young of some avian species is astounding. and three of the nine woodpeckers illustrated.
Originally considered monotypic, two species are now recognized. Drakensberg (or Orange-breasted) Rockjumper is a Drakensberg Mountain species whose range is shared with the tiny landlocked kingdom of Lesotho. Males of this species are more brightly colored in their non-breeding winter plumage. the Rockjumpers.
Still, the outing did not produce any new species for the year, or enough good photos for a post here. Instead, I have chosen to write about an idea I’ve had percolating for a while: to tell you what the most common species are down here. I’ll take the most common native species in taxonomic order.
This ruled out some excellent species like Cape Eagle Owl, Violet Wood-hoopoe, African Finfoot and Half-collared Kingfisher and I was still left with 36 species. This was tough because this excluded species that occur in two countries within South Africa’s geographical area, Lesotho and Swaziland. This is what came up: 1.
The month and this particular period is all the more auspicious for me and mine, as so many friends and families celebrate spring birthdays. My family took our annual post-Easter Egg hunt hike at Powder Mills Park, where I spied several gorgeous matched pairs of Wood Ducks along with lots of different woodpeckerspecies.
She enjoys seeing all species of birds, but her favorites are hummingbirds. The usual, friendly types are chickadees, nuthatches, and some woodpeckers. A female Pileated Woodpecker We saw a few more birds along the boardwalk. A Pileated Woodpecker slipped through the trees. Other photos by the Kinrys family
Old beech forests are inhabited by Grey-headed Woodpecker , Eurasian Green Woodpecker , Black Woodpecker , White-backed Woodpecker (rare), Stock Dove (uncommon), Collared Flycatcher , Red-breasted Flycatcher (rare), Marsh Tit and Coal Tit. About 120 species have been recorded so far.
There are few families of birds as bewitching as the birds-of-paradise. There are, however, two species that are more accesible than the rest of the family. It was one of these species, the Victoria’s Riflebird , that I was lucky enough to see this year in the Atherton Tablelands near Cairns. www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VGongXYDGo
North America is home to many amazing bird species, including several which require a special effort to see and appreciate. Trogons and quetzals are an ancient, colorful bird family that occurs in forests and other wooded habitats from the American tropics to Africa to Southeast Asia. So let’s look at this sampler, shall we?
In pastures of the hot lowlands, they tend to be lines of stunted Gumbo-Limbo trees or some other heavily pruned species. In addition to those birds and the Squirrel Cuckoo pictured above, the following are some of the more common hedgerow species of Costa Rica. Hoffmann’s Woodpecker. Yellow-bellied Elaenia.
One always wants to see as many species as possible in a single day, whether on an ocean island with few species, or in Suffolk, England. It was in this latter region that he reports seeing 60 species on his first outing of this year. But how many species can one see over a few hours in the highlands of central Mexico?
If you have much interest in birds, you may well have seen videos of the very comical mating dance of male Red-capped Manakins , a species whose range stretches from southeast Mexico to South America. For example, highland Michoacán has two gorgeous trogon species. And who wouldn’t want to see a member of the toucan family?
The males can compete with Painted Buntings for their neon colors, and the females, like those of that related species, have their own subtle beauty. (It’s It is always a species they have dreamed of seeing for years.). Here in Michoacán, we have four different species from the Myiarchus genus of the Tyrant-Flycatcher family.
Both species of southern African otters are also regularly encountered ( Cape Clawless and Spot-necked.). A family of endangered Wattled Cranes might be a highlight of the lower sections of the Sani Pass road, by Adam Riley. The endemic Bush Blackcap is now placed in the babbler family, photo by Adam Riley .
Through multi-partnerships, cooperation, federal funding, and the private conservation efforts of one family, 616 acres were officially added to the Cherokee National Forest in September 2018. In the area live 15 species from Tennessee’s threatened and endangered list, as well as 11 aquatic species from the federally endangered list.
Working man that I still am, I can not yet spend every day of January trying to build my year list of species. But in winter, one of its major species is a migrant with a wonderfully quirky name: the Lucifer Hummingbird. The second photo below is the best I’ve ever managed of this rather drab species. And I do mean showy.
Another cotinga that is arguably the most popular member of that family – for its voice more so than its looks – is the Screaming Piha. No question about it being a woodpecker – a most beautiful one at that! This Red-necked Woodpecker gave us a good look before gliding to a slightly further tree.
Clark’s Nutcracker , sometimes called the Crow Woodpecker , will always be paired with Lewis’s Woodpecker , the woodpecker that acts like a crow, both because of their cross-family likenesses and because of their namesakes. It was a wonderful experience and one that none of us will soon forget.
Some 320 species have been recorded here, and in springtime it is possible to observe more than 150 bird species in a week. Last but not least, there were three species of shrikes, Red-backed , Lesser Grey and at least 2 Masked Shrikes , possibly 2 more, an entire family (not all were showing so well).
Finishing a year with 372 species is nothing to sneeze at and the fact that I added twenty-five birds to my ABA list was nice. Last year I saw 372 species of bird , much lower than the previous two years of 602 species and 604 species. How good of a bird is Pileated Woodpecker in Nassau County? What did I see?
These arid hills, cloaked in a mosaic of deciduous scrub and desert vegetation, form a northern outpost for several Neotropical species while also harboring several key endemics and southwestern Nearctic species. I really wanted to see Gray-crowned Woodpecker and Military Macaw , and I managed to succeed on both counts.
To give some idea of the birding possibilities at this accessible site, on a recent visit, after enjoying a classic Tico lunch, casual birding gave us a good number of species. Birds like toucans, tanagers, and fruiting trees with Crested Guans and other rainforest species. I need to get back and explore it a little bit more.
So much so that the two species are placed within their own family, Chaetopidae. The species is insectivorous and nests amongst the scree and boulders on the steep mountain slopes. And then there are the Ground Woodpeckers ! These are one of only three ground-dwelling woodpeckers in the world.
It was also great to finally travel overseas again, meet a lot of people I did not know (and some I did), to be in a new country… and not just the new country, but its best birding area, where almost all local hotspots are yellow (150+ species) and several are ochre (200+ sp.), impressive for Central Europe.
That’s because this fascinating part-Caribbean, part-south American country holds well over 800 species of avifauna making it without doubt one of my top three countries in all of the continent to visit. Ok, maybe not the vampire bat…but some of the more “cuddly” species are actually quite easy to see.
I’m happy to say that Laura Erickson and Marie Read have written a book, Into the Nest: Intimate Views of the Courting, Parenting, and Family Lives of Familiar Birds , that is not too cute and that does not anthropomorphize. Some chapters focus on one species (Yellow Warbler), some on several related species (Chickadees and Nuthatches).
In 2008, with my family decided to build the Limneo Lodge , a small accommodation with only 9 rooms. With more than 312 so far recorded bird species, Lake Kerkini National Park offers great birding year-round. Other important breeding species include Black and White Stork , Lesser Spotted , White-tailed , and Booted Eagle.
By contrast, the Lineated Woodpecker is not only resident, but wears the same outfit all year. So too does the Crimson-crested Woodpecker. Let this Roseate Tern represent all terns that (even for a brief period) share this coloration. A good eye-to-eye might be necessary to understand why this Great Antshrike is included on this list.
Few places boast so many different bird species in such a small area — over 900 species (more than Europe, or all of the United States and Canada combined), including 75 different families, like 51 species of hummingbirds, 48 warblers, and 45 tanagers. It was close to 5 a.m., More about it in the weeks to come.
Sure, there are no woodpeckers here and very few places you can get a decent donut, and everything is quite a bit more expensive than you think it should be, but I still choose to stay. This was a family I have wanted to see since I first saw their pictures in a guide book ten years earlier, and made the day for me.
Where a birder goes in the Caribbean determines which birds are seen including toy-like todies, Carib hummingbirds, cool pigeons, quail-doves, unique avian families and outrageous woodpeckers. Watch the streams for fish, we saw a few, unidentified yet cool looking tropical species! Roosting Great Potoo and Crested Owls!
Even photos of the rarest of birds can be found, even heart-wrenching images of bird species that are no longer with us. The fleeting photo of an Ivory-billed Woodpecker tugs at and flies away with a piece of the heart, that final image of a Slender-billed Curlew is difficult to look at, it’s a stab deep inside.
Many Neotropical families and genera have some of their northernmost members here, such as the spinetails ( Rufous-breasted Spinetail ), Tangara tanagers ( Azure-rumped Tanager ), and guans ( Horned Guan ). the species suffering most from deforestation). This is a fascinating area of transition. We were off to a great start.
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