I'm not used to seeing a woodpecker so close to the ground

Sorry for the low quality. I wanted to snap a few quick photos on my phone before it flew away.

Luckily, the bird stayed around long enough for me to snap a few photos with my film cameras.

We have a few of those that visit the yard frequently but I also have never seen one that close to the ground. Glad you got to snap some photos of it before it flew off. 

Pileated woodpecker. And when you're that close you get a better idea of how big they are! I joking call them "chicken of the skies," because some of their song sounds like a chicken clucking to me.

In reply to Shadeux :

Yeah, I knew they were larger, but I didn't realize just how large until a squirrel wandered up.

Well that's where the bugs are, I watched a giant woodpecker  take down a tree next door.  He started by peckering a 10" limb in half.  Yowzah.

I have a feeder that takes photos, there is a red bellied woodpecker that comes by pretty regularly

Hey, that's awesome.  Saves you the expense of getting a  stump grinder in there.

Close to the ground?  If that's where the bugs are.

I see both red-bellied and downy woodpeckers at my feeders.  Only rarely see the Pileateds, and never at the feeders, which are very close to my kitchen windows.

In reply to 1988RedT2 :

My daughter also frequently uses it as a stage, so the stump certainly isn't going anywhere.

Helping out the local wildlife is just an added bonus. 

Very cool, I've never seen one near the ground. 

My parents have several around their house. That's the only place I've seen them at a feeder. They take one sunflower seed, fly it up to a branch on the live oak the feeder is under and wedge it in a crack in the bark so they can peck it open. Kind of bizarre. I always thought they only ate bugs. 

Last week wild turkeys were eating bumpers in Michigan hotel parking lots.

Colin Wood said:

Wow, I've seen them peck holes before, but I've never seen one take down the entire tree.  

In reply to Datsun240ZGuy :

I remember seeing a wild turkey for the first time as a kid.

While I knew turkeys raised on farms were larger than wild ones, I still didn't expect wild turkeys to look so scrawny.

Side note: Do bumpers taste good to turkeys?

Colin Wood said:

In reply to Datsun240ZGuy :

I remember seeing a wild turkey for the first time as a kid.

While I knew turkeys raised on farms were larger than wild ones, I still didn't expect wild turkeys to look so scrawny.

 

Side note: Do bumpers taste good to turkeys?

I was in the woods hunting years ago and heard this really whooshing sound.  It was a tom turkey flying through a clearing.  And those things are unnaturally fast for their size. Lots of power into each wing flap.     (Another time I saw a Great Horned Owl fly over and it was silent.  No wing noise at all)

In reply to Colin Wood :

Do they taste good?? Well that one has the special Korean iron salt seasoning so maybe, or he has an iron deficiency.

Awesome.  January was a hell of a year, and we have been using backyard birding as a way of injecting some joy into our lives. It started with crows, then California Scrub Jays. A stellar's Jay showed up, then came back with a couple friends. Robins, Juncos and Eurasian collared Doves.

Just last week we got a new species. A Northern Flicker, which is primarily a ground based woodpecker.

We ran out and bought an appropriate suet feeder (The kinds with the decending paddle are more trunk like and allow them to feed in a more natural position) but these guys are stubborn and still hang off the bottom of our feeders

Whatever, you do you. The second photo is the female. Flickers pair up for life.

I'm so excited to have the birds we have. But this is my woodpecker high point.

A 3 day old Red Cockaded Woodpecker that has just been banded. Classified as critically endangered at the time the species is starting to rebound and was very recently downgraded to threatened status which is both good and bad news, depending on how you look at it.

If you're in FL and want to see these wonderful creatures, a dear friend of mine runs Archaeopteryx Birding tours and would be thrilled to take you to see them.

We have a flock of 8 turkeys that hang out in the area. I have seen them about 10 times since this spring when the mother and 7 little one came through our yard. Last time I saw them the looked to be over 3 feet tall.