BellaOnline Forums Hobbies and Crafts Birding Woodpeckers in your area?

On a daily basis, without fail, on my hikes on the trails near my home in the central highlands of Mexico I am fortunate to hear and see raucous,animated, and photogenic golden-fronted woodpeckers. Also visiting our area, but have not for quite a while, are ladder-backed woodpeckers.

Just curious, what woodpeckers do you get to see in your area?

Here in northern Indiana I have Downy woodpeckers and Redbellied WPs in my yard, Hairy WPs are occasional visitors to my suet feeder and Redheaded WPs live nearby. Pileated WPs are more rare this far north, but a few pairs live in the area.
I love woodpeckers! They are so flashy and bold.

While in San Blas, Nayarit last week, which is one of the best birding spots in Mexico, I was very fortunate to see and get superb pictures of golden-cheeked woodpeckers in a variety of settings-the coolest of which was way up high inside of palm leaves.

The male golden-cheeked is very similar looking to the male golden-fronted except its crown is a much deeper red, has gold cheeks, and it has a striking black ring around its eyes-a really super looking bird and I was lucky to see some when their colors were enhanced by rising and setting suns.

On my previous visit to San Blas when I went into many various habitats, in addition to golden-cheeked, I saw acorn wp, gray-crowned wp, pale-billed wp, lineated wp, and yellow-bellied sapsucker.

Next week I will be doing an article on the birds of San Blas and will follow that up with an article or two about a specific San Blas bird or birds but I have not made up my mind yet as there are really so many awesome ones to choose from- I might do it on the different kind of jays there...?
Tomorrow, I will be submitting a general article about San Blas.

Are any of you familiar with San Blas?

I just came back from a three and a half day birding trip that I took on my own to Mazamitla, Jalisco, a small mountain village surrounded by pine/oak forests. Shortly, I will be writing in the forums about some of the "best" birds that I saw while there.

However, for now I will only mention the woodpeckers. There were many golden-fronted woodpeckers both in the periphery of the town and in the forests.
My biggest thrill was seeing multiple acorn woodpeckers in a pine grove. Acorns with their black, white, and red faces/heads are charmingly clown-like in appearance. What I also discovered about them is that they are highly territorial and assertive/aggressive in protecting their area and offspring.
While viewing them I saw a pair of acorns repeatedly go after a squirrel who was on the same tree as they were. The squirrel fought back but eventually relinquished its claim to their territory.
Acorns along with golden-cheeked and pileated are my favorite species of woodpeckers.

Hi Les,

I am in Michigan and I am not sure what type of woodpeckers they are but I do hear them in my area.

we have several species here in the Chicagoland area. The most common where I live, in the southwest burbs, seem to be the flicker and the downy woodpecker. I love the flicker because it sounds like a laughing monkey when it calls... very loud!

The golden-fronted woodpeckers have recently been muliplying in numbers here and are seen in numerous areas. If not in trees they are often seen on nopal cactus and telephone poles.If not seen they can be heard all over because they are LOUD and active. Maybe like last year hopefully pretty soon other species of woodpeckers might be making an appearance.

Kim and all,
Have you had any recent woodpecker sightings or at least "hearings?"

For the past 2 summers we had a pair of Pileated woodpeckers nesting near our yard. I've already spotted one of the young ones, but haven't seen or heard "Poppa Woodpecker" yet. He's much larger than the 17 inch average in the field guide.

That is super! I wish that we had pileated here as they are in the top three of my favorite woodpeckers. Are the young ones identical/similar in color and markings like the adults?
I have only seen the pileated once when I was in San Blas, Nayarit
at an indigenous ejido coffee plantation. And you have them by your house!

By the time the Pileated woodpeckers come out the nest hole, their feathers and markings are very similar to adults. With Red Shouldered hawks nesting in our front yard, I don't think we'll be seeing many other birds for a while. But that's OK, we love our hawks and refer to them as "the kids." I've got my camera ready by the front door and hope to get some pictures of the parents and babies.