Tag Archives: Red-Bellied Woodpecker

Monday – 7.24.2017

3:52 AM – The Mourning Doves are now the most frequent visitor to the open platform feeders, and it looks like they’re feeling possessive. This one sure doesn’t want Blue Jays hanging around.

Since the cylinder suet cage is back in action, we’ve been getting a steady stream of bird customers (and a couple of attempts by squirrels). These were there over the last few days: Downy Woodpecker,White Breasted Nuthatch, Bluebird, Cardinal, Carolina Chickadee and Red-bellied Woodpecker. The Cardinal is new to the suet feeder, probably because the mealworm feeder wasn’t up that day. Same for the bluebird with the attractive pattern of back feathers.

Here’s that squirrel we mentioned. He takes a good sniff and decided to have lunch somewhere else. We really like pepper suet.

Friday – 7.21.2017

11:07 AM – The new pepper suet is a success. The birds like it, and we’ve seen no squirrels on it yet. Here’s a Tufted Titmouse, and a Red-bellied Woodpecker.

This bluebird checks out the new pepper suet cylinder, and decides it’s not for him. I wonder if it were compressed seeds if he would like it.

This video shows a squirrel sampling the next pepper seed/feed. He stops eating right away, gets a drink of water, and scampers off. That’s what’s supposed to happen. I’m disappointed to report that later in the day another squirrel spent five minutes hogging down the hot seeds. It didn’t seem to bother him at all. I guess the effectiveness depends on the squirrel, but we have had very few lengthy squirrel visits since we put out the hot stuff.

 

 

 

Tuesday – 6.27.2017

3:29  AM – Red-bellied Woodpecker having an uneventful meal. All as usual except for the part where he flies off with a beak full of suet.

Downy Woodpecker at the mealworm feeder. The Red-belly is a regular visiter here, but the Downy usually sticks to the suet cage.

The Cardinal having an ordinary meal. At this time of day the sun really shows how vividly colored those birds are.

Sunday – 6.18.2017

6:09 AM – It’s Retro-Sunday again, featuring the best of past Backyard Foodcourt videos. Today we’re taking a look at woodpeckers. We usually see two kinds in this part of Alabama, the Red-bellied Woodpecker, and the smaller Downy Woodpecker. The Red-bellied doesn’t really have a red belly, but they do have a bright red head, and nicely patterned black and white back.

From January, 17, here’s a Red-belly at the open feeder, a pretty rare sight. They usually like the perch style feeders. This one is here because he likes the peanuts he’s picking out of the seed:

The Red-belly at the suet feeder, a more common sight. From February 14.

This male Downy Woodpecker (you can tell it’s male by the red patch) usually sticks to the suet feeders, or in this case, a ‘pepper’ seed-cake in a cage. From Feb 26.

On June 12, we have two female Downy’s at the mealworm feeder, not their usual choice of feeder.

Tuesday – 6.13.2017

4:18 AM – The juvenile bluebird trio are still around and hanging out together, as shown here at the mealworm feeder. We’re curious as to how long they’ll be around once they get their full growth.

Red-bellied Woodpecker spends the afternoon taking beaks full of suet off to some other Red-belly, either mate or chick. These are just a few of the times we caught this on camera.

This looks like a juvenile House Finch. The color and pattern is similar to the female, but it’s smaller, and somehow just looks younger.

 

Thursday – 6.8.2017

4:13 AM – We put the suet feeder back in front of the camera. The finch sock that was there got no traffic, and the Squirrel Buster was easy prey for squirrels and raccoons. We loaded the suet cage with “pepper” suet, to discourage the pests. The usual suet fans showed up right away. The first one – a Red-bellied Woodpecker – looks like it’s been injured, but I think it’s just molting. No way to really tell what’s going on. The other birds are the Downy Woodpecker, the White Breasted Nuthatch and Carolina Chickadee.

The juvenile bluebirds continue to get more color – the blue on this one is coming in.

Blue Jay cracking a seed:

Wednesday – 6.7.2017

7:40 AM – There’s not much going on today, just the regulars.For a change of pace, here’s a video experiment. In order, the birds are sparrows, finches and sparrows, Brown Headed Cowbirds and Cedar Waxwings.

Back to normal – just a Red-bellied Woodpecker and a bluebird grazing the mealworm feeder. Notice the woodpecker flying off with a big mouthful of worms.

 

Monday – 6.5.2017

3:02 AM – The Eastern Towhee was back for a second day. This is a much better video.

A few days ago we had a video of birds taking food away from the feeders. We’re seeing a lot of it – not just the birds on this video and the previous one. It will be interesting to see if we have new crops of young birds in a couple of months. Hope so.

The sparrows tend to be extras in the great bird dramas of the Foodcourt, even the relatively colorful ones like this Chipping Sparrow. Here he’s looking for intact seed after one of the squirrels has ravaged the platform feeder.

Tuesday – 5.30.2017

12:04 AM – We last saw a Brown Thrasher sometimes in late 2016. This was when we only had one camera, and hadn’t started the website, so we have no videos of that one. Today another one showed up in the platform feeder. They’re big handsome birds. Maybe he’ll become a regular.

Red-bellied Woodpecker getting some mealworms. He’s the only bird that hangs upside down to do this. No one knows why. (Actually, someone probably knows, but not me.)