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A warm summer morning on August 27, 2018 at 7:10am I was walking the dog prior to heading into the office. As I turned a corner I heard a woodpecker so I grabbed my phone to snap a photo. I did manage to get a few but the lighting was wrong and the dog impatient so I left without a good photo. It was a silhouette and I forgot about it and never looked it up. (1st photo below) Fast forward 2 years to July 30, 2020 at 9:33am. I was walking the dog and turned the corner to very load bird calls and find a woodpecker on a light pole just 3 houses further down than the one 2 years prior. Again I grabbed my photo and got a few photos before the dog got too impatient. I’ve lived in this house for 4 years and have seen this bird only twice almost in the same place similar date and time. When I took the photos this year I remembered the silhouettes from 2 years ago and looked them up. I was surprised when I compared them, what are the odds? IMG_2928.MOV

Damage to a nesting box from a pileated woodpecker trying to get through the roof!

Portland, Maine. Could this belong to a starling? Found in my yard, in a very urban area. (City of 70,000 in high density area) It was below a tree. I don’t know the time it was left but it was found during the day. It is about 2 inches long from top to end.

Help my sister and I ID this woody hammering away at the yucca stalk for seeds in her yard. This is the second woodpecker she’s seen in 2 Days (see notes below) Location: Valdez, NM (near Taos) in northern New Mexico. When: February 11, 2019 FYI: On 2-09-2019 she saw a woodpecker at same place but described it looking like a cross between a miniature Pileated and a larger Downy woodpecker (but smaller than a Hairy) as it had obvious red in its cap and lots of black laddering. We’re trying to figure out if this is the female version of the mystery woodpecker or if it’s an entirely different species of woody. I think the original woodpecker may be a Ladder-backed WP but not 100% sure. This one seems too big for Downy but not a Hairy either. https://vimeo.com/album/5756680 There should be 2 videos. The second one is probably better. Please let me know if the link fails to work. Thanks!

I'm a first time user of this forum. I hope you can help me ID this bird. The bird was perhaps bigger than a robin but smaller than a crow. I shot pics of it in the late afternoon near the end of November in the woods of upper Rock Creek Park in Montgomery County, Maryland. It was pretty high up-- maybe 30 or 40 feet? It may have been part of a small group, but the other birds were in the area but not close-by. I made a composite image out of 8 photos-- cropping in on the subject. These are all the same particular bird. I suspect it is a red-bellied or downy woodpecker, but it seems to have the wrong head color arrangement. I'd like to hear your ID, and why you think so. If there is more info you'd like from me, please ask. Thanks, Gnuser

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.

My thinking is a Red-breasted Sapsucker, looking for concurrence.

This was last week in Maryland. Only slight rosiness visible on top of head - lacked usual bright red on head and nape. Sorry about low quality photo.