Saturday, October 03, 2020

Pretty Birds


 
In the comments on last Saturday's posting, Andrew asked if the bird was a woodpecker.  There are several varieties of said birds in the United States.  The two images above are a Hairy Woodpecker ~Dryobates Villosus or maybe it is a Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker ~ Sphyrapius varius. 

Anyone know for sure which it is? 

I bought a book on wild flowers of the region.  Reading that, I will never look at a flower the same way, how many petals, how many leaves, how are the petals and leaves arranged.  People spend a lifetime trying to understand this stuff.  Still I am not too old to learn new tricks.  

18 comments:

  1. petals, luv, not pedals. unless you are looking at bicycles. SMOOCHES!

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    1. Fixed it, my weird brain, it works for me

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    2. SMOOCH! your brain is perfectly fine. I usually type "bread" for "beard".

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  2. We have books of native birds, native plants, native insects. So much fun to browse. I sometimes even remember what I've read, but they're great resources when a beautiful something flies into the house and we discover it’s a dreaded palm beetle. My guess is a male Downy Woodpecker in that first photo.

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    1. I may just stay with pretty bird!

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    2. Our friend got tired of having to identify the birds when we would go for hikes. So, she now calls most of them LBJ (little brown jobs).

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  3. I think Mitchell is right. The first is a Downey Woodpecker. I get several os those and their comical to watch. The second one I too get and known them to be Red Bellied Woodpeckers. I have no idea why they call them that because the red is in the head. And up close, there bigger then you think. I have a unusual looking one right now with all spots, the red seems to be gone. But come 5am without fail, there outside pecking and tapping on the drain pipes.

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    1. You have many wonderful birds around you home

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  4. Don't ask me what they're called. I thought the first one was a bee of some sort.

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  5. I have books on flowers and birds of the desert that I have to refer to quite often. I've learned the names of the handful of birds I see often at the garden but every now and then, I see one I don't know. And wildflowers, yikes there are way too many to know them all.

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    1. The little differences on the birds and flowers make them a challenge

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  6. Such knowledge is beyond me, alas.

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    1. Me to, but we still know pretty when we see it.

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  7. Anonymous10/04/2020

    Rather good that a book has been published on local wild flowers, and thanks for woodpecker information.

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    1. The bird book we are using is specific to this one state, it is really handy, and being more local there are fewer birds that it can't be if it is here.

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  8. whatever it is it is up to no good that's certain.

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    1. Be careful about parking your car under her nest

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