June 20, 2010 - Woodpeckers and a Duck

At the photography workshop that I attended near Vero Beach, Florida, we also concentrated on Pileated Woodpeckers. Here is one of my favorite photos from the trip. You can tell this is a female because she has a black “mustache” and the red on the top of the head doesn’t come all the way down to the bill. She has just landed on the side of a Cypress tree.

WoodpeckerPileatedfemaleBlueCypressLake20100524

On short flights the Pileated Woodpecker has an undulating flight pattern. It alternates between flapping its wings, as shown in this photo, and gliding.

WoodpeckerPileatedmaleflightBlueCypressLake20100521

Here the woodpecker is holding its wings close to its body and gliding. This photo and the previous one show a male (red mustache and the red on the top of the head goes all the way down to the bill).

WoodpeckerPileatedmaleflightBlueCypressLake20100521

Here’s a funny optical illusion. It looks like this woodpecker has her bill wedged in the stub of this tree branch. She actually just moved up the side of the tree and is behind the branch. Pileated Woodpeckers are large, about the size of a crow. They are found over most of the eastern United States, Southern Canada, the Rocky Mountains, and along the Pacific coast.

WoodpeckerPileatedfemaleBlueCypressLake20100524

We also saw Red-bellied Woodpeckers. I didn’t get any flight shots but here is one of them clinging to the side of a tree. I think this is a female. On a male the red on the top of the head would extend almost to the bill. The view is somewhat limited but it looks like the red is only on the back of the head.

WoodpeckerRedbelliedBlueCypressLake20100523

Another species that we saw on the lake was the Black-bellied Whistling-Duck. They are more common in the Tropics but the population has been increasing in the southern United States. They have a distinctive, bright red bill and long pink legs. Whistling-Ducks do perch in trees as this one is doing: they nest either in tree cavities or on the ground.

DuckBlackbelliedWhistlingBlueCypressLake20100523

Here is a photo of a Black-bellied Whistling-Duck in flight.

DuckBlackbelliedWhistlingflightBlueCypressLake20100523