For the past couple of months, there has been 2 red headed wood peckers coming to my bird feeders. I put out suet, sunflower seeds & wild bird seed. There is also another bird about the same size or a little larger, that is brown with black flecks, a patch of red on the back of it's neck & a black V on it's throat. I thought it might be a meadowlark, but from the description in the bird book, it doesn't sound like it. It eats the suet, pecks at the trees like the wood peckers do & also eats fallen seeds, grain off the ground. I'm attaching a picture. Sure hope someone can ID it for me. Well I was going to, but I guess I don't know how to attach pictures or they don't allow them here. I'll try posting it in the pictures area.
Jan
Bird ID Help!!
Hello My Friend,you most likely have a
Flicker. The brown back and conspicous
white rump,visible as the bird flies up,
is the best field mark. Flickers are our
ownly browned back woodpeckers.Close up
a wide black cresent shows across the breast,
a red patch on the nape. There are yellow-
shafted flickers and red-shafted flickers.
hope this helps. They have the black mottled
look on the back like stripes.
We have the yellow shafted flickers. They love ants and will sit in the hills and eat them. They have a "necklace" across the front that helps me identify them. Your woodpecker could be a red brested woodpecker. They love suet and sunflower seeds.
Thanks much. I believe it is called a Northern flicker. I found a web site that had a picture of one & it looked like this one visiting my feeders. I also have 2 of the red headed wook peckers as well as Hairy & Downy Woodpeckers, Goldfinches, Purple Finch, Cardinals, Doves, Nuthatch, Titmouse, Chickadees, Blue Jays, & even had a Blue Bunting the last 2 summers. I've really enjoyed watching them at the feeders. They don't come as much this year as they did last year, but we haven't had as much snow this year either & the temps have been fairly mild. Last year I counted 30 doves, 12 sets of cardinals (males & females 24) & at least that many Goldfinches.
is this the red headed wood pecker u're looking for http://www.birdphotography.com/species/rbsa.html ?