Woodpeckers!

They're cute and funny in the birdfeeders, but not so much when they're pecking on our house. Do those fake owls work? Will they scare away the little birds so they won't come to the feeders? HELP!

I have one by the bird feeder.  Fake owls will work only for a short time, until the birds realize it isn't real!  I had a view of a 2nd story roof with fake owls and hundreds of pigeons.
 

We have some Pileated Woodpeckers in our neck of the woods but so far they only go after utility poles. They have red feather on their heads and you can tell the sexes as each has feathers on top of their heads that either rise up in a curve or go down in a curve. I can tell that they are male or female, but which is which I would have to look in my bird book.

They make a racket and can give me a head ache.

Kelejan wrote:We have some Pileated Woodpeckers in our neck of the woods but so far they only go after utility poles. They have red feather on their heads and you can tell the sexes as each has feathers on top of their heads that either rise up in a curve or go down in a curve. I can tell that they are male or female, but which is which I would have to look in my bird book.

They make a racket and can give me a head ache.

We've had a Pileated Weoodpecker visit the utility pole at the back of our house.  We get smaller Downy(?) Woodpeckers in the backyard as well. They take seeds out of the feeders and hide them in cracks in the 4x4 wood pole that holds up our birdhouse.

Pileated WP in photo.

TD, your pictures shows the red crest pointed  to the back of its head. 

Your picture shows a male woodpecker.  A crest pointed forward indicates a female.

They both make a racket.

My Bird Book where I wrote notes, tells me that I saw my first one Christmas Day 1988. A Christmas gift from my DH that year and that was the first dated entry in the book which has been used many times of the years.

Okay, you guys are shaming me into doing some research. We have 2 kinds: big red, black, & white ones and smaller red, black, & white, but the smaller ones have a pretty black and white pattern instead of the solid black and white. I'm probably not explaining very well, so I'll have to get some pics and hit the books.  

I think this also calls for a science project. The windows in our house are one-way reflective, so I can lean on our kitchen counter and stare at the birds from just 3' away and they don't even know I'm there. The problem is that we have so many windows, there's always a glare, so I can never get good pics. If I get a big box, turn it upside down, jam it up against the window, then sort of lean into it with my camera (maybe cover with a black cloth) hopefully I can get a clear shot of the birds on the feeder. Worth a try, right? Next week is all rain again, so what else am I gonna do?

Finally got a shot of the big one. Is this a pileated woodpecker?

No, Country Naturals. This is an Acorn Woodpecker, so called as it stores hundreds of acorns, one in each hole it pecks out. It measures about 8 1/2 to 9 1/2 inches. It is a social bird, living in colonies.

The Piliated Woodpecker measures 14 - 18 1/2 inches, much larger. Lives in a more northern territory including Canada. (Which is how I came to observe them near my home.)

Kelejan wrote:No, Country Naturals. This is an Acorn Woodpecker, so called as it stores hundreds of acorns, one in each hole it pecks out. It measures about 8 1/2 to 9 1/2 inches. It is a social bird, living in colonies.

The Piliated Woodpecker measures 14 - 18 1/2 inches, much larger. Lives in a more northern territory including Canada. (Which is how I came to observe them near my home.)

WOW! The Piliated must really be impressive. I can't imagine one that big. Our other one is smaller. I'll post a pic of that one as soon as I can get one to pose for me.

Thanks for thi ID, Kel.

Okay, here's the other one. Lousy pics -- sorry. I'm looking into a glare filter for my camera so I can take better photos through our treated windows.


This guy is smaller than the other one.

It really is rather hard to identify birds and butterflies from one picture in a popular handbook as really their markings are not all alike.

The larger picture above seems to me to be a Northern Three-toed Woodpecker that lives on the east coast of America and Canada.  7 - 9 inches.  This woodpecker has two toes forward  and one pointing backward. Other woodpeckers have four toes.  That would be good if you could see its feet. Your picture has a barred black/white back and small yellow patch on its head that identifies it as a male.

The other one could be a Downy Woodpecker that is much smaller. 5 - 6 1/2 inches.
In winter it takes suet from bird feeders. The picture I have  a more definite white front and barred wings. It is the most familiar woodpecker covering a wide range of the American continent. It is the smallest woodpecker of the eight pictures in my book.

Best I could do, CN.

Kelejan wrote:It really is rather hard to identify birds and butterflies from one picture in a popular handbook as really their markings are not all alike.

The larger picture above seems to me to be a Northern Three-toed Woodpecker that lives on the east coast of America and Canada.  7 - 9 inches.  This woodpecker has two toes forward  and one pointing backward. Other woodpeckers have four toes.  That would be good if you could see its feet. Your picture has a barred black/white back and small yellow patch on its head that identifies it as a male.

The other one could be a Downy Woodpecker that is much smaller. 5 - 6 1/2 inches.
In winter it takes suet from bird feeders. The picture I have  a more definite white front and barred wings. It is the most familiar woodpecker covering a wide range of the American continent. It is the smallest woodpecker of the eight pictures in my book.

Best I could do, CN.

Thanks, Kel. I'll try to get some better pics.

Country Naturals, you are doing great.

It gives me great pleasure to use the book that my DH gave me for my birthday in 1982.  It is a very well used book and I have lots of notes in it saying when and where I identified things in it. I have a notation in it now where County Naturals saw an Acorn Woodpecker in her garden.

The book is called North American Wildlife published by Reader's Digest.
Copyright 1982

I have used to identify wild flowers, snakes, insects etc. etc.

Kelejan wrote:Country Naturals, you are doing great.

It gives me great pleasure to use the book that my DH gave me for my birthday in 1982.  It is a very well used book and I have lots of notes in it saying when and where I identified things in it. I have a notation in it now where County Naturals saw an Acorn Woodpecker in her garden.

The book is called North American Wildlife published by Reader's Digest.
Copyright 1982

I have used to identify wild flowers, snakes, insects etc. etc.

As soon as I figure out how to eliminate the glare from our windows, I'll keep you in all sorts of bird pics to identify.

Country Naturals, TD might be able to identify the smaller bird as he says he has Downey Woodpeckers in his area of Ottawa in Ontario, Canada. Downeys are all over the American Continent.

Kelejan wrote:Country Naturals, TD might be able to identify the smaller bird as he says he has Downey Woodpeckers in his area of Ottawa in Ontario, Canada. Downeys are all over the American Continent.

This link gives info on Downy Woodpeckers and others.
https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Downy_Woodpecker/id

Hmm. Ours have spots all over the wings and head -- more like a juvenile, but isn't it too early for that? (Gotta get a better pic.)

countrynaturals wrote:Hmm. Ours have spots all over the wings and head -- more like a juvenile, but isn't it too early for that? (Gotta get a better pic.)

I also thought it looked like a young one, kind of soft and not well defined. We will wait on your next picture if you get lucky.

Pileated Woodpeckers are here in Ottawa ...taking over Canada's capital.

https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/reclusive-wilderness-woodpeckers-are-colonizing-ottawa/amp

trolleydriver wrote:Pileated Woodpeckers are here in Ottawa ...taking over Canada's capital.

https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/reclusive-wilderness-woodpeckers-are-colonizing-ottawa/amp

Funny that they're afraid of people. Our acorn woodpeckers aren't afraid of anything. They dive-bomb the squirrel and the jays and yell at us when we come outside. Their motto is "never back down."