What kind of bird is this?
April 12th, 2009 - 12:12 pm KY Time
Howllo Fellow Basset Hound and Bird Watching Lovers:
Does anyone know what kind of bird this is? It was way up in a tree in my back yard and I had to zoom in. I cannot believe I got this good of a shot. It was huge. Look at the claws on this thing? I googled a red headed woodpecker, but this boy looks somewhat different. It almost looked like he had a red Mohawk!
Click on the pic to see his fancy eye makeup!
I watched him for about 20 minutes and I never heard any wood pecker sounds. Maybe he was just eating bugs. I swear he looked like he was about 16” tall.
Maybe he was looking for Easter eggs???
More bird watching later……….and Easter Bonnets! Love, Cat, Chaps and Emma
P.S. Still having talking Chaps problems with my website. Sigh
Comments(5)
Cat, It looks like a pileated woodpecker to me.
They are almost prehistoric looking, they sound like it too!
I’m so glad Emma is on the mend, I think of her often. I really enjoyed the howling video. I sent it on to everyone I know.
Thankyou for all you’ve done for Basset rescues, it takes special people like you and all your friends to do this wonderful work!
your friend, Karen M:-)
Karen’s right. It’s a pileated woodpecker. About the size of a crow and sounds like a carpenter drilling holes in trees. My mom could identify every bird she saw or heard … I always have to pull her book out to check.
You’ve got some really beautiful birds in your area. I wish we had more color around here. Seems like all the birds around here are black, gray or a mixture of. Booooring.
Thanks guys, I have never heard of or seen one before. We were worried he was eyeballin’ Vernas eggs. Wow, that guy is very intimidating. We have some pretty big trees in this area and I wonder if that is why we have so many cool looking birds. I think we have a lot of bird feeders in the area as well! LOL!
Cat
Definitely pileated woodpecker — they are kind of scary looking but harmless. There is another woodpecker with a red head. It is called a red-bellied woodpecker. We have lots of birds here, so I am always searching through the “bird book”.