faerye , Ugh, I love Lewis’s Woodpeckers so much. Their glossy night-green wing feathers! Their red and white checked waistcoats! Their velvety scarlet little faces! Arrgh!
#picidae #woodpecker #BirdPhotography #CentralOR #Oregon
The same woodpecker is erupting, head and shoulders, from a nest hole lower down in the same snag. His bill is wide open and the sawdust he’s just thrown is caught blooming around him in midair.
The very same woodpecker is perched on one of several long, winding barkless branches near the top of the sawn-off snag. His hopeful eye is fastened on another Lewis’s we only see in partial silhouette on the nearer branch. He is displaying, his head held high so the contrast of his chalk-white neck feathers with the rest of his plumage is strong; his wings are held in an artificial half-raised pose as if he’s Bela Lugosi about to sweep a cape over his face. The other woodpecker is barely looking.
A different, luckier woodpecker is pictured in mid flight, directly above the photographer. Their forked tail is crisp and dark against the blazing high desert sky, and the sun flares on the bright red of their head. The profile of their beak is not so distinct and well-drawn, however, because it is crammed full of one or more bulky arthropods. A good catch for this aerial insect-hunter!