back yard invaders

[ricerdude69]

so when it stopped raining today I was looking out the back and lured out by a few blue jays. I walked around for a few minutes and got some ok pics

I don't know much bout birds but I'm pretty sure the first one is a male woodpecker and the next 3 are a female.

Then I chased this blue jay around the yard for like 10 minutes before he decided to land right next to my deck (I wish he would've done that in the first place).

I was really wingin it with settings cause these lil guys wouldn't sit still for more than 30 seconds.

[Jim Jensen]

Yep those are woodpeckers, male and female. Either Downy or Hairy Woodpeckers. They are hard to tell apart but I would bet they are Downy. They are a little smaller than the Hairy.

[walleyeRyummy]

great pics......

jim, you are correct about the downey being smaller then the hairy, however, to risk sounding like a know -it-all, i'll share something i learned this summer,,,,

the hairy wood pecker has a small black "spur" , or spike, of plummage that goes from the neck towards the breast that the downy does not have... this is a hairy!!

it is best viewed in the first and third picture

aside from the black line and the different size, they are near impossible to tell apart!!

[Jim Jensen]

Thanks for the information. I'm no bird expert but I love photographing them. Is the black plumage you're speaking of seen in this photo right below the eye?

My bird book tells me their beaks are different as well. Since most of the birds I see are at my bird feeder I can see them pretty close up. If you look at the birds in the pictures below you can see the size difference between the two.

[walleyeRyummy]

nope, those in the top two pics are downy.....i cant tell on the bottom one. in the 2nd pic, its a female on the left and male on the right, and you are correct about the bils...they are not as long on the downy