ML391669331

Age

Not specified

Sex

Not specified

Observation details

Adult, found yesterday by Alexander and Paul Linton. Seen today by many observers. Possibly seen by Justin Neal on 2/17. He wrote the following on the Birding Nevada facebook group, which I think is noteworthy enough to include here: "I want to add, although I’m sure it will seem quite unbelievable and will be met with some skepticism, that I am absolutely convinced that I saw the same Red-headed Woodpecker in the same location on 2.17. I originally listed the bird as Red-breasted Sapsucker but this misidentification was a result of my brain convincing my eyes what they saw was a near impossibility. My first impression of the bird and throughout observation was Red-headed Woodpecker although I had some bad glare and obscuring branches to contend with. I saw a pure red head without the white slash marking above the bill. When perched I could see very extensive pure white on lower back. When flying, there were large white patches on wings extending to base. The bird was unusually shy and I couldn’t relocate after a minute’s observation. After returning home and intending to report as Red-headed woodpecker, I somehow convinced myself that this was a near impossibility due to the rarity and odd location and that it had to be some aberrant Red-breasted Sapsucker, the only other ‘red-headed’ possibility, even though some of the field marks didn’t make sense. With the ‘rediscovery’ by the Lintons with pics, I feel extremely confident that my observation was also a Red-headed Woodpecker. I’ll edit the eBird list from the day later. "

Technical information

Model

Canon EOS 7D

ISO

250

Focal length

285 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire

f-stop

f/5.6

Shutter speed

1/1250 sec

Dimensions

1029 pixels x 633 pixels

Original file size

529.94 KB