Acorn Woodpeckers - SX20 1996-11
As promised (to Tom) very early Thursday afternoon, two more Acorn woodpeckers upon request. This is a special pair. Normally, I can't tell a mated pair of these birds because they are not monogamous although they do only mate within the family. In order to become a member of an Acorn woodpecker family,you have to be ... hartched into it. Several generations are part of the family. For an outsider to be nominated, there usually has to be a death in the family. I don't know how the voting is accomplished, but I would imagine if the nominee shows up with three or more acorns, its got the insider track.
This is a pair: the male is on the left; female on the right. You can tell by the differences in the red crown.
The acorn woodpecker's habitat is forested areas with oaks in the coastal areas and foothills of Oregon, California, and the southwestern United States, south through Central America to Colombia.This species may occur at low elevations in the north of its range, but rarely below 1,000 m (3,300 ft) in Central America, and it breeds up to the timberline. Nests are excavated in a cavity in a dead tree or a dead part of a tree. Other characteristics are discussed in yesterday's upload.
One other thing that I always mention is that these "clowns" of the woodpecker species were the inspiration for Woody Woodpecker by cattroonist Walter Lantz in the 1930s. The call, a lioud ratcheting sound, HAD to be the model for Woody's call.
This was one of the earliest successful shots of this woodpecker, and one of the first bird images with the SX20 camera. Knowing the behavior and territory of a family ofhem is exceedingly useful in getting good images. For these two, I found the three main Valley oaks (out of as many as five), saw which was getting the most attention, and staked it out for the better part of two summers. With all that, I never saw where a nest was although I could guess by the activity around a hole in the trunk. Once the young are flying, they do not use the nest cavity again. They're too busy hoarding acorns. The branch of the tree that these two were on, collapsed under its own weight in May of 2011. It was estimated that 100,000 acorns had been hammered into that one branch. By the end of 2013, the whole tree had collapsed. flic.kr/p/23Xpdx4
Acorn Woodpeckers - SX20 1996-11
As promised (to Tom) very early Thursday afternoon, two more Acorn woodpeckers upon request. This is a special pair. Normally, I can't tell a mated pair of these birds because they are not monogamous although they do only mate within the family. In order to become a member of an Acorn woodpecker family,you have to be ... hartched into it. Several generations are part of the family. For an outsider to be nominated, there usually has to be a death in the family. I don't know how the voting is accomplished, but I would imagine if the nominee shows up with three or more acorns, its got the insider track.
This is a pair: the male is on the left; female on the right. You can tell by the differences in the red crown.
The acorn woodpecker's habitat is forested areas with oaks in the coastal areas and foothills of Oregon, California, and the southwestern United States, south through Central America to Colombia.This species may occur at low elevations in the north of its range, but rarely below 1,000 m (3,300 ft) in Central America, and it breeds up to the timberline. Nests are excavated in a cavity in a dead tree or a dead part of a tree. Other characteristics are discussed in yesterday's upload.
One other thing that I always mention is that these "clowns" of the woodpecker species were the inspiration for Woody Woodpecker by cattroonist Walter Lantz in the 1930s. The call, a lioud ratcheting sound, HAD to be the model for Woody's call.
This was one of the earliest successful shots of this woodpecker, and one of the first bird images with the SX20 camera. Knowing the behavior and territory of a family ofhem is exceedingly useful in getting good images. For these two, I found the three main Valley oaks (out of as many as five), saw which was getting the most attention, and staked it out for the better part of two summers. With all that, I never saw where a nest was although I could guess by the activity around a hole in the trunk. Once the young are flying, they do not use the nest cavity again. They're too busy hoarding acorns. The branch of the tree that these two were on, collapsed under its own weight in May of 2011. It was estimated that 100,000 acorns had been hammered into that one branch. By the end of 2013, the whole tree had collapsed. flic.kr/p/23Xpdx4