Help id a woodpecker in NY (3 Viewers)

[YoMoe]

I'm trying to identify a bird that looks like a woodpecker. It is black and a dull yellowy orange. It is larger than a downy or hairy woodpecker but not as large as a northern flicker. It has been hanging out at our bird feeder for several days. I live in NY near NYC.

 

[KC Foggin]

I'm not seeing any black bars on the outer tail feathers so I'm going with Hairy Woodpecker.

Hi there and a warm welcome to you from those of us on staff here at BirdForum :t:

 

[The Falcon]

Welcome to the forum, YoMoe.

Your bird is a Downy Woodpecker.

 

[YoMoe]

I think it is too large to be a downy woodpecker. We get them all the time. We also get hairy woodpeckers on occasion. This one does not have any red on its head. It is also orange. Are downy or hairy woodpeckers ever orange? I took those pictures last night, the light wasn't great. I'll try to get some better shots today. It was just here 1/2 an hour ago. I didn't have my camera out.

 

[steveMc]

Judging by the size of the bill in the second picture (profile), it definitely looks like a Hairy Woodpecker. Bill far too large for a Downy.

The colour might be attributed it to being a juvenile, recently out of the nest. I know when we get juvenile Downy and Hairy woodpeckers in the yard, they are very dull, grey, etc.. Another possibility is a vagrant western Hairy, though I have not seen one, I believe I read where they can be darker in colour, sort of brownish.

No red on the bird just means it's likely a female.

 

[YoMoe]

I think there must be two of them. I just took a few pictures and this one definitely has two red patches on its head. I accidentally attached an image of a red bellied woodpecker. This one has also been around today. It may help to gage the size of the other one.

 

[KC Foggin]

This is a completely different Woodpecker. This is the female Red-bellied Woodpecker. On the Downy/Hairy woodpeckers, only the males have the red patches on their head. Females do not have them.

 

[steveMc]

That last picture is a different species. That's a Red-bellied Woodpecker.

 

[YoMoe]

Sorry, I attached the wrong photo. I edited the post. Here is the second yellow woodpecker again. This one looks like a male. The one from the first post looks like a female.

 

[chris butterworth]

The Downy / Hairy Woodpeckers are both Hairy. The bills are too long for Downy, there are no black bands on the outer tail feathers ( I know Western Hairy have banded outers but, in NY? At this time of year? ). Also, the 'spur' running from the sides of the neck onto the breast sides is too long for Downy.

 

[YoMoe]

So there are definitely two of them. One male, one female. Here are a few more shots of the female. Are Hairy Woodpeckers every yellow or orange? They do look like Hairys.

 

[steveMc]

It's pretty interesting. I did some quick Googling and found this article:

http://web.colby.edu/mainebirds/category/physiology/

(story is about half way down the webpage, the picture is very similar to what you are seeing)

So could be a pigmentation issue with these two. I thought about the possibility of the birds being stained but it seemed too even for that. Does seem very unlikely that TWO western variants would be in your yard.

 

[The Falcon]

Oops, my mistake. It's a Hairy. I mistakenly said Downy. Outer tail feathers are lacking the "two black bars" that Downy would show, among other things.

 

[YoMoe]

It's pretty interesting. I did some quick Googling and found this article:

http://web.colby.edu/mainebirds/category/physiology/

(story is about half way down the webpage, the picture is very similar to what you are seeing)

So could be a pigmentation issue with these two. I thought about the possibility of the birds being stained but it seemed too even for that. Does seem very unlikely that TWO western variants would be in your yard.

That does look like it. I just came across this PDF also:
CAROTENISM IN THE HAIRY
WOODPECKER

 

[Andy Hurley]

Oops, my mistake. It's a Hairy. I mistakenly said Downy. Outer tail feathers are lacking the "two black bars" that Downy would show, among other things.

I was getting worried for a minute there Josh, you're normally spot on

 

[DarkFireFalcon]

I'd bet that a lot of woodpeckers get stained from roosting/nesting in rotting trees, maybe oaks with lots of tannins in the wood that leach out when they get wet.

 

[YoMoe]

They are really pretty and fun to watch. Too bad they are not some exotic species.

 

[KC Foggin]

I was getting worried for a minute there Josh, you're normally spot on

Yeah, me too

 

[KC Foggin]

Okay, could the yellow we are seeing be some kind of artifact from the sunlight and reflection?

I took one of the photos and reduced the yellow saturation and they looked very normal. Normally if a color is a true color on the bird, reducing the saturation doesn't remove that color just lightens it.

 

[YoMoe]

No, they are very yellow and the photos are spot on. I have a nikon d300 with an good lens and my monitor is calibrated. Here's an excerpt of the article I linked above:

Hairy Woodpeckers with yellow outer rectrices apparently have not been reported in the literature previously (Jackson et al. 2002, Pyle 1997). Birds with yellow instead of red crowns occur from time to time (Putnam 1998), and exposure to tannins, soot, or pitch can stain the white feathers of the Hairy Woodpecker brown (Jackson et al. 2002). The subjects of our paper, however, with the exception of one individual (back cover), exhibited yellow only on the outer tail feathers. The confinement of yellow to the outer tail feathers and the apparent persistence of this plumage pattern from year to year suggest the aberration results not from staining but from carotenism.

I've also been reading up on xanthochromism. There are several photos of yellow hairy woodpeckers on the web.