Wednesday, 3 June 2015

[Maine-birds] Hairy Woodpecker, Stained?

Hey all, I have recently returned from a trip and found a new visitor at the feeders. It is a Hairy Woodpecker that appears to have its white feathers stained with a rufous tinge. In looking through the guides I have, I do not see anything that is abnormal about it other than the coloration of the white feathers. The pattern definitely looks "eastern" so I am assuming it is some sort of staining. Has anyone ever seen anything like this before? Is it possible that it is nesting inside a specific type of tree? Or is there some other type of food it might be eating that is causing the discoloration?

A google image search has turned up a few others like this but none of them had any other information regarding the ultimate cause. Some thought maybe it was inhabiting either a black walnut tree or possibly a remnant of a burned tree, however it was all conjecture. Any thoughts on it would be greatly appreciated. 

Thanks in advance and happy birding. 

Rob O'Connell
Cumberland

--
Maine birds mailing list
maine-birds@googlegroups.com
http://groups.google.com/group/maine-birds
https://sites.google.com/site/birding207
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Maine birds" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to maine-birds+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

0 comments:

Post a Comment