ML125325631

Age

Not specified

Sex

Not specified

Observation details

As I said in the intro, this was my first Hairy Woodpecker in the Coachella Valley. Unfortunately with all of the golfers on the hole I first heard, and then saw the woodpecker on, I could never get close to it. All of my pictures were from pretty far away as I was on an easement that runs along the #10 Canyon hole on the course. I waited around 45 minutes for the train of golfers to end so I could get closer to the bird, but the golfer train never ended even though it was the 10th hole on the course and it was starting to get dark. The single note vocalization of the woodpecker helped me see it first, and its vocalization was not like that I hear in Northern Flickers, Nuttall's, or Ladder-backed Woodpeckers that I all see with some frequency. I immediately noticed its fairly large size relative to Nuttall's and Ladder-backed Woodpeckers. What else was distinctive was its very tiny red feathers way back on its head almost to the nape, and its black back with basically no spotting, but with a fairly large white almost football shaped spot in the middle of its back. I guess that I can't say with any certainty that it might not have been a hybrid. If anyone sees any signs of it being a hybrid based on the pictures I'm positing here, please let me know.

Technical information

Model

NIKON D3200

ISO

400

Focal length

200 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire, auto

f-stop

f/5.6

Shutter speed

1/1600 sec

Dimensions

487 pixels x 464 pixels

Original file size

70.91 KB