Woodpecker in Michigan

[FishkaFishka]

I’m fairly confident on the ID myself, but I want to see what you all think, because I was a bit surprised by it.

It was spotted earlier this evening in a tree on my property in West Michigan, Grand Rapids/Walker area. 
 

my first impression was that it was very very dark brown, which I believe was a trick of the light, because it looked more black to me as it changed angles. It had white spotting on the back, which grew more concentrated closer to the end of the tail and wingtips. The sides/breast were lighter with lots of blurry dark gray bars. Bill was longish and very sharply pointed. Visibly larger than a downy woodpecker. It had a noticeable white vertical bar on each wing, which I believe to be a color variation unique to the individual.
 
The pictures are very blurry, sorry about that. I didn’t have a camera with me, so attempted to take a photo through my binoculars with my phone. The included sketch is based off my original field notes, my blurry pictures, and my memory of what the bird looked like. It’s not a perfect sketch obviously, but it gives the general idea of where The main markings were. Facial markings aren’t exactly replicated, but there were definitely white lines on the face.

 

Edited October 7, 2021 by FishkaFishka

[Peromyscus]

The photos look like a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker to me.

Edited October 7, 2021 by Peromyscus

[Aidan B]

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker

Sniped

Edited October 7, 2021 by Aidan B

[FishkaFishka]

aha, I think you’re right. That’s actually not what I thought it was. I didn’t think of the sapsucker, because my field guide shows both sexes as having prominent red patches, which this bird had absolutely none of. But that wing stripe would indicate a sapsucker wouldn’t it? And a Google search yields members of the species with no red.

 

Thank you.

[The Bird Nuts]

It's a young bird.