ML645266960

Observation details

Juvenile foraging in oak trees And on electrical pole. All the places the Pileated likes to forage. So I can see why the Pileated is concerned that the Red Headed Woodpecker is in his territory. (Pileated’s crest was raised in alarm a few days earlier when the male Pileated was following the Red Headed around the yard. A few days ago, I posted a photo of the Pileated’s raised crest as he followed the Red Headed juvenile around.) I have seen no aggressive moves by the Pileated towards the Red Headed , it just seems like he keeps his eye on the Red Headed juvenile. In today’s set of photos, you can see the Red Headed Woodpecker foraging and then you can see a photo of the bug he is eating, which he had just found in the bark of the Oak Tree, in almost the exact same spot the Pileated likes to forage for bugs. (Today I was sitting on the deck drinking coffee for this entire observation.) The Red Headed Woodpecker kept looking at me from the nearby oak trees. He kept vocalizing, making his grating call while I sat there. It’s his normal call, but he called a lot, and it sounded like he was irritated I was sitting there watching him. I might be able to add his call to this observation. He flew around the deck in some wide circles 4 times or so, also making his grating call, like he wanted to land on the fly through feeder a few feet away from me, or the clean filtered water station, also on the deck. But he would not do so while I sat on the deck close to his feeder, watching him. He also would not fly to the feeder in middle of the yard, further away, which also has a fly through option, and also contains his favorite bark butter bits and worms and peanuts. As soon as I went inside he came to the fly through feeder. This must be a very young bird. I am not sure if it is proper to call it a juvenile or an immature. But one photo, which is more edited that the others, shows just one or two red feathers beginning to appear on the side of his head near his eye. I highlighted those feathers in the editing process to help determine his age. There is another more blurry photo, but I posted it, because it shows the light barring on this birds back. If it is a young bird who was born nearby in the last few months, it is good to note that there has been a big effort by a number of neighborhood volunteers to clear the undergrowth, including buckthorn from the nearby Birch Island Woods. This has been going on for a number of years, but recently there has been another big effort. There were several recent ebird reports form Birch Island Woods, and nearby, of one and then two Red Headed Woodpeckers, so maybe this is one of those same birds. Maybe the efforts to return Birch Island Woods back to an Oak Savannah has created more of the ideal swooping habitat favored by this species. Many thanks to the volunteers working on removing Buckthorn, and other invasive species from Birch Island Woods. Also people that remove Buckthorn from their own yards. And you can’t talk about Birch Island Woods without thanking Jeff Strate for his original vision and heroic efforts so save this plot of woods from development, 25 years ago.