Happy Friday all!
I just submitted my first checklist as part of the 2018 Great Backyard Bird Count. This morning was mostly a bust. It was quite windy; my assumption is that the birds were largely hunkered down this morning. The feeders were blowing around...the highlight of the morning was a Downy Woodpecker male and a Hairy Woodpecker female.
These are two lookalike species, so I thought I'd jump into that quickly. Here are some pics I took back in 2016 which illustrate the difference.
Hairy woodpeckers are larger, they take up most of my double suet cake feeder.
Downy Woodpeckers are significantly smaller but have very similar markings.
The difference between the two species is most apparent when you can see the side by side. It's also worth noting the Hairy Woodpecker is equipped with a larger beak.
Also in case you are interested in seeing how the Great Backyard Bird Count is going, they shared a pretty cool live map. Happy birding all! I'll update things as I submit more checklists.
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