8 replies to this topic

[noebl1]

Been awhile since I've seen one of these.  Favorite food source is Carpenter ants. This one found a nice Camponotus Pennsylvanicus colony and worked it for quite awhile today:

(for those who have never seen these, they are the largest Woodpecker in the US, and about the size of a crow)

 

Edited by noebl1, August 28 2016 - 7:34 AM.

[Salmon]

A family of these lives in my neighborhood. Recently they've been spending a lot of time eating the sassafras berries across the street. (And hopefully not the spicebush swallowtail caterpillars that also live in that tree!)

[Deion]

Had one of these make a huge hole in one of my trees

[kellakk]

That's awesome! I still haven't seen one of these since moving to Texas, despite birding every other weekend or so.

[gcsnelling]

Saw one a couple of months ago, super cool birds.

[Crystals]

Nice pictures. Quite a few of these in the boreal forest where I am, but they are usually quite shy. I find the ones up here like to grub around at the bottom of trees a lot - probably near the entrance to the ant nests.

Had a nest of these nearby once, those youngsters are quite noisy when they are hungry.  They sure keep their parents on their toes.

[T.C.]

Are these rare or something, I also am a bird fan, I see these where I live a lot over the summer.

[noebl1]

Not so sure about rare, but not terribly common.  I've lived in rural areas for a long time, and only seen them a handful of times, and usually far enough away hard to get a good shot  Though it pretty ironic 2 weekends ago after not seeing this one since August, almost hit one with the car... 

[MC Wren]

Awesome! I saw a couple of these at camp. Incredible birds!