Acorn Woodpecker 0037 - a photo on Flickriver

            Over the years, I've been fortunate to find Acorn Woodpeckers almost every time I hiked the foothills near home. This is one of their favorite perches, an old post that used to hold a trail marker. In going through the archives, I have seven images of the woodpecker on this post on Old Borges Ranch Trail. It abuts the huge open field just below East Bay Vista Trail which is 900 feet in elevation above. That is the first hill you have to climb to start a really good outing.

The acorn woodpecker's habitat is forested areas with oaks in the coastal areas and foothills of Oregon, California, and the southwestern United States, south through Central America to Colombia.[2] This species may occur at low elevations in the north of its range, but rarely below 1,000 m (3,300 ft) in Central America, and it breeds up to the timberline. Nest are excavated in a large cavity in a dead tree or a dead part of a tree. In 20 years, I have never found a nest.

The adult acorn woodpecker has a brownish-black head, back, wings and tail, white forehead, throat, belly and rump. The eyes are white. There is a small part on the small of their backs where there are some green feathers. The adult male has a red cap starting at the forehead, whereas females have a black area between the forehead and the cap. The white neck, throat, and forehead patches are distinctive identifiers. When flying, they take a few flaps of their wings and drop a foot or so. White circles on their wings are visible when in flight. Acorn woodpeckers have a call that sounds almost like they are laughing. Actually, the first sign of an incoming Acorn Woodpecker is their greeting call, "wackka...wackka ... wackke," always loud and with two "k's".   

Once again, I'll point out that not one book points out that there is yellow in that throat patch, but 90% of my images show it, sometimes even brighter than this...

Taken in: United States / California / Contra Costa (show map)

Taken on: May 11, 2016

Tags:

Acorn

Woodpecker

Old Borges Ranch Trail

Mt. Diablo - Walnut Creek, CA

North

Side

Diablo

Canon SX 50 « less

Sets appears in: • Woodpeckers, Sapsuckers, and Flickers

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Camera: Canon PowerShot SX50 HS, f/8.0, 1/640 sec, 150.5mm, ISO 200 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Canon PowerShot SX50 HS
Aperture:	f/8.0
Exposure Time:	0.002 sec (1/640)
Focal Length:	150.5mm
ISO:	200
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	Off, Did not fire
Exposure Mode:	Auto
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Manual
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	ACDSee Pro 6
Show full info

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