Woodie: A New Guy

I did something in Photoshop called "equalizing" to turn a couple of crap photos into these interesting, yet sort of still crap, specimens. This bird is one of this year's golden-fronted woodpecker babies on his way to the hummingbird & oriole feeders that hang from our porch.

Woodlets 2010

This little guy and his nestmates are coming out any day now. We first heard the woodlets (presumably more than one, based on noise level) on May 1, Saturday, which was 29 days ago; previous years tell us that they come out after about 30 days, and here they are showing their little heads in the last week, right on schedule. So exciting! I somehow can't remember if I took these photos Thursday or Friday evening.


Dad arriving with food


Dad hopping into the hole with food


Headind up to the top of the tree, post-feeding


Junior looking out, post-feeding


Dad hanging out up top

Feeding Frenzy

It's what the parent woodpeckers are now doing all day, every day. Here we have a beakful of madrone berries.

Woodie. Dad. 2010.

While sitting on the patio Saturday evening with friends, the static-y sound of woodlets was heard for the first time in 2010! There are babes in the nesting tree (I predict 3, or maybe 5) and the parents are working full-time feeding them. Here's Dad just emerging from the hole; you can see his tongue just barely poking out.

A sad note: the cardinal nest outside the kitchen window lost its 2 or 3 eggs last night. I'd just implemented the keeping-in of the cats for the next 3-4 weeks while birds nest, so we know it wasn't them, and besides, there is no trace of the eggs. They are gone—not knocked to the ground, but GONE. Snakes? Um, raccoons? What else takes bird eggs from nests? I feel terrible for the parents, but hope they'll try again soon.

Nesting: Sunday Afternoon

No feeding going on yet....just a lot of visits in and out of the hole. Eggs?

Woodie 2010: A View from the Porch

The Woodpecker Dad, v. 2010

They're starting to get the nest ready; he was pecking away inside the hole for a long time yesterday.

Bird Love

Woodina, my beloved female golden-fronted woodpecker. She and Woodie have been coming to the birdfeeders a lot lately.

This Weekend's Woodlet Photos

In honor of Father's Day, we highlight the Woodlet today! (Unlike all the other days, when we never focus on the woodlets.)

Woodlet's Tongue

Saturday again. After the dad left, the woodlet stayed up there alone for a bit. He tried some pecking and some picking up of things with his tongue, which is there as big as day in the photo above. The tongue of the woodpecker is a very powerful thing! The Sibley Guide to Bird Life and Behavior says (slightly edited for length here):

Woodpecker tongues are barbed, sticky, and extremely long for the bird's head size. In some species, the tongue can extend as far as five inches out of the bill. In all birds, the tongue contains a set of bones, known collectively as the hyoid apparatus, that provides support, structure, and an attachment point for muscles that allow the birds to move their tongues and manipulate food. The hyoid apparatus ends in two elongated "horns" that sweep off the back of the tongue. In woodpeckers extreme tongue extension is possible because of exceptionally long hyoid horns, which wrap completely around the skull and are anchored near the nostril or around the eye, depending on the species.




Isn't he adorable?

Dad Feeds Woodlet

A little while after the woodlet was at the feeder alone on Saturday, I spotted it and its dad up in the corner of the trellis over the window. Dad was giving it a snack.

Woodlet at Birdfeeder

The parents and the woodlets are now appearing very regularly at the birdfeeders. This woodlet didn't actually eat much; it mostly stood there with its mouth open until a scrub jay swooped in and scared it away. "It" because we can't tell yet if it is male or female; its little baby head is devoid of color, except for a tiny, tiny bit of yellow beginning to show at the back of its head (just barely visible in the last photo).

Woodlets and Parents

This evening I saw a woodlet on the woodpecker tree with its dad. They hung out for a while but Dad had gone to a nearby oak by the time I got the camera. I am so excited, though—this is the first time that I've really seen proof that the baby woodpeckers, once fledged, continue to hang out with the parents. I've seen Woodie and Woodina continue to come to the birdfeeder and fly away with mouths full of seed; but I haven't seen them with the little ones before.




All of the pictures above are of the woodlet. He/she stayed on the woodpecker tree a little longer, then also flew to the oak, and I followed the two of them with my camera to yet another tree. Then Dad flew to a phone pole, and a woodlet followed, and then another woodlet followed, and while all three were hanging out there, the other parent came and joined them! I wasn't quick enough to get a shot of that, but I did get Dad and the kids up there together.


This is Dad in the other oak tree

The baby on the woodpecker tree was very gray compared to its parent. The striped back is quite distinct, though gray & black rather than white & black; and its little head is still quite unmarked by color at all. It also still has the sort of spotty look that all new baby birds seem to have.


I wonder if the little ones go into the tree at night with the parent(s) to sleep. Each year after the fledging, the parents—especially the dad—continue to hang around the tree and go in the hole each night. Does the whole family sleep in there?


The juniors are the two lower birds

Woodlet Heads, Thinking About Coming Out of the Tree

The magic of Photoshop has helped improve the quality of these a teeny, teeny bit; at least they are not quite as dark as the originals.


It's a long way down