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New to birdwatching, want to verify bird id

15 years ago

Hi everyone!

I have recently discovered the joy of birdwatching and am hungrily devouring information on identifying birds. This afternoon I spotted a new (to me) type bird on the ground near my feeding station and I think it's a Northern Flicker and wanted to see if I was right. I figured who best to ask than the birdwatching forum here at Gardenweb?

The things I noticed about the bird are:

Large-ish size, about the size of a grackle, morning dove or large blue jay, approximately 12 inches.

Long bill, put me in mind of a woodpecker.

Coloring was brownish, with a very distinctive red cap on it's head and black stripe on face. Body was a brownish color with flecks of white visible on wings.

I put that all together and checked my birds of Pennsylvania book and have come up with the identification of Northern Flicker. Am I right?

I managed to snap a not so good photo through my window screen.

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Comments (3)

chinamigarden
15 years ago
Yep, its a northern flicker. A male.

Enjoy your new hobby.
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lisa11310
15 years ago
My Northern Flicker baby fledged from his nest yesterday so keep an eye out for a Mom and a baby!
Welcome to birdwatching...expect to become addicted!
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OK, Jean, I think it's time you 'fess up and tell us just WHICH ornithilogical publication you do professional photography for... Your photos ALWAYS look like they came right out of a book, or should be in one! I'm humbled by your skill and aspire to attain anything close to it with my own bird pictures! As for the Carolina wren, I got a picture of one just outside my dining room window a couple years ago, perched on one of those cage feeders... picture's through a dirty window, but it's an otherwise pretty clear picture of a wren and I think I posted it here before at one point, so let me go see if it's in my Photobucket... Well, I THOUGHT it was, but maybe I deleted it. It's late, and I'm not gonna hunt it down right now, but maybe you'll figure out if that was a Carolina wren or not by looking at online sources, FTM. Happy Birding, all! Jeff
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Cath, I CAN understand that - when I finally got DSL a couple months ago I thought I'd died and gone to heaven! Yes, before that it could certainly take an hour to upload 1 photo, and if you wanted to do 4 you had to go to bed and hope the sucker didn't time-out at 3am! We had a very dry fall, winter and early spring, but have recently had several good rains that while not replensihing the earth here have at least kept us from losing even more soil moisture. So yes, it's dry, but for the moment not critical. Let us please pray for rain---selectively that is.
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Thanks Susan--I feel so boring up here--no fancy pipevines or gulf frits! :) I have a couple pics I took the other day: one was a sooty azure and an Appalcahian Brown. I'll post later. Thank you for the encouragement! I saw the Milbert's in June on some chive flowers. I know that he or she is still around--it always flies away from me when I approach a certain garden and goes into a stand of trees. Very frustrating. White Admirals come around pretty frequently. I've just started taking my camera around with me once or twice in the afternoons, so I'll keep posting. Thanks for the encouragemet!
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NO recipes!! LOL. That guinea hen sounds like a keeper if she eats those nasty ticks! I thought guineas were a lot smaller, or is it just the photo that makes her look big? Luvs, did you spray the little off-white tinted birds that were at DT recently? Or some other ones they've had? I haven't re-painted any, tho often 'gloss' some up to make them look better, like I did with those cardinals we found last Fall. I have two real bird nests I'd LOVE to use. Thanks to windstorms last year. They are fairly large tho, and really wonderful! Birds amaze me. But if I use them, they've got to be up high somewhere as I have a feeling the cats would go nuts. Especially "Trouble", he'd have a blast disassembling a real nest. I have to admit, he was extremely good about ALL my decorations since Fall. I am amazed, maybe Tornado season is over finally. He's 2 now. But a real bird nest would be pushing my luck for sure. hugs, Karen
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jiggreen
Original Author
15 years ago
Awww...I hope I see a baby flicker! My baby wrens flew away last week (I know, house wrens are bad..but they nested before I knew what they were!) and it was really sweet to see them trying out their wings.

As for becoming addicted, I already am!! Due to health issues, I've become fairly housebound, and I find myself watching the birds far more than the television! Sometimes I feel like if I stop watching for a moment, I'll miss something really special..lol!!

My husband is actually going to build a small deck off of our master bedroom for "optimal bird viewing"...that side of our house faces the woods and the feeding station I have set up in the side yard...it's the perfect spot for relaxing and enjoying all of the critters that visit the yard!
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Would this be an immature hawk ?

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