Here's a adult woodpecker (on the right, black cap) flaking off the bark of a pine tree.

Here's the woodpecker feeding the grub it finds to the baby woodpecker (left, lower, wearing the yellow cap.)  Notice how fat and fluffy the baby is still. 

I had never seen this behavior before-- and that they let me watch and get close enough to photograph it-- I was thrilled!

Any bird experts know exactly what kind of woodpeckers these are?  I'm thinking three-toed, but my books don't show a baby, so I'm not sure if the juveniles have the yellow cap without the white speckled forehead.

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Posted by Christinethecurious

Did you have to use a zoom lens? were the kids with you? How did you keep them quiet enough if they were? I've never seen such a long wood pecker before.

This Tuesday at the Zoo, Uncle Doug pointed out a Downie Woodpecker just a few feet from us in a bush. I guess interesting things are all around us, we just need to learn to see them.

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Posted by Anonymous

The kids were occupied watching the ducklings in the stream, and I heard the tap-tap-tap first. The first two times I got up from the picnic table to photograph the bird (alone first) he flew away. But finally I just stood still near the tree and waited, and he came back with the baby and let me watch. Then I put my camera up and walked a little closer step by step.. I don't have much zoom on my camera, but it's digital, and it has enough pixels that I could crop and zoom in a little on the computer.
I've seen downies before-- but their babies have red heads here.

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