Monday, January 11, 2010

Downey Woodpeckers in my Backyard



Last fall I noticed a couple of very small, black and white, tree-clinging birds on the sad looking trees behind my apartment. After several failed attempts to identify them on What Bird I gave up and forgot about them. Yesterday morning I saw another tree clinging bird out back with some red on the back of its head. This prompted me to search again to identify what I thought was probably a woodpecker of some sort. The website All About Birds was very helpful in confirming my suspicions. Jersey City has a population of Downey Woodpeckers. The small black and white birds I spotted months ago were females and therefore not easily identifiable to the novice birder as a woodpecker. After spotting a male on the tree closest to my bedroom window, I also caught sight of another in a neighboring tree. Two males and at least two females feed in my backyard.

It's always exciting to see wildlife around here that isn't a stray cat, pigeon, or opossum.

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