Day 32: I should probably just say, "My 'pecker has polkadots," and then leave you wondering for an hour or two before posting the photo, but I don't want anyone getting the wrong idea. It's true, though. My 'peckers (and I have at least two) have lovely polkadots. This one also has red whiskers, indicating that the bird..."BIRD!" I said...is male. Females' faces are plain. That said, I live in an area where there is some intergrading between our dominant western race of Northern Flicker and the eastern version which sports black whiskers and yellow feather shafts (as opposed to red) on the tail and wing. At least once, I have seen a black-whiskered bird at the feeder flying off with a flash of red, the telltale of a crossbreed. When intergrading occurs, it can make identification challenging. Fortunately, it's fairly clearcut with the polkadotted 'peckers.
No comments:
Post a Comment