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Yesterday (5/31/19) at dusk, I briefly spotted a uniquely marked bird visiting my hummer feeder. It had a red or deep orange crown, possibly entire head. The body appeared black/white or gray/white. It hovered a moment before landing, exactly the way my ruby-throats do. The low light and brief visit didn't allow time for great details, much less a pic. My first thought was a downy woodpecker due to petite size, but I don't know if hovering is something they do. My other thought was a rufous, but I think that's a winter bird in my area. I'm very new to birding but have recently done a lot of research on common birds in west GA. I live in a heavily wooded area, only water source is a neighbor's one acre lake about 1/4 mi away. I feel there are possibilities I'm unaware of. Any ideas on what type of bird this could be? Thanks! Kym

Thanks in advance for your interest and/or help. We have a woodpecker of some type that just loves to drink from our hummingbird feeder, which hangs from our patio roof, even though it’s awkward for him/her. It’s much more skittish than the hummingbirds, and if I attempt to sneak out the patio door to get a closer look, it flies off before I even make it out the door, usually landing in a bushy tree in our neighbor’s yard over the back fence. Well, I decided to take a bunch of pictures of it through the window from a distance, so as not to scare it away. Then I cropped them and put them in an animated format. The lighting wasn’t great in the morning, and all you could see was a black silhouette, but you can see a bit of it’s feet/claws and tail feathers. I tried it again late in the afternoon with much better results. If you watch the second animation all the way through, you’ll see a better example of its coloring, and that it has a red spot on it’s crown. I think it’s a very light brownish gray or tannish gray color on its head and underneath, with blackish stripes on its back/wings/tail feathers. We live in the North Phoenix metro area, and I took the photos today, 8/12/18. We live near a golf course and man made lake, but our back yard hasn’t been landscaped yet. No greenery or even desert plants or cacti back there. We put the hummingbird feeder up only a couple weeks ago, and I noticed the woodpecker for the first time about a week ago. He has been by more and more frequently every day. Thanks again for your interest and help in identifying this woodpecker. I wonder if the sugar water in the feeder is good for him/her.