One of birding's many rewards is that quite frequently a bird sighting for the twentieth time feels like the first. I was just reminded of this treat very recently on an excursion to southern Arizona, where I actually did have a few first time encounters. However one of my most memorable moments was photographing a common species, a male ladder-backed woodpecker, in Sierra Vista.
I've seen the bird quite a few times, throughout the deserts and neighborhoods around Phoenix, and in the mountains and woods around Prescott. Like many other North American woodpeckers, it's mostly black and white, with the males showing some red on his crown. And as the name infers, horizontal stripes on its back create a ladder pattern. Until now, I viewed its shrill cackle of a call as its most distinguishing characteristic.
I've taken quite a few shots of the bird over the past year, with several of them actually turning out quite nicely. But in Sierra Vista last week a striking male showed up at a feeder in the public observation area of Battiste's Bed and Breakfast. The grounds were empty of people on a chilly October morning, and the ever-present goldfinches and house finches were sharing the space with more colorful northern cardinals and Rivoli's hummingbirds. But no bird seemed as interesting as the male ladder-backed woodpecker.
One reason is that it turns out that I have never actually photographed the male in the species. And thanks to a zoom lens and digital cropping I was able to appreciate how beautifully his plumage contrasts with that of the female sex. His head feathers are indeed red versus black, but not uniformly so like in most males of the woodpecker family. Instead his solid red cap transitions to a speckled red, black and white pattern towards his forehead. While several woodpecker varieties in the area share a similar back feather pattern, I've yet to see such a dapper fellow with the same dappled and flecked crown.
I've seen the bird quite a few times, throughout the deserts and neighborhoods around Phoenix, and in the mountains and woods around Prescott. Like many other North American woodpeckers, it's mostly black and white, with the males showing some red on his crown. And as the name infers, horizontal stripes on its back create a ladder pattern. Until now, I viewed its shrill cackle of a call as its most distinguishing characteristic.
I've taken quite a few shots of the bird over the past year, with several of them actually turning out quite nicely. But in Sierra Vista last week a striking male showed up at a feeder in the public observation area of Battiste's Bed and Breakfast. The grounds were empty of people on a chilly October morning, and the ever-present goldfinches and house finches were sharing the space with more colorful northern cardinals and Rivoli's hummingbirds. But no bird seemed as interesting as the male ladder-backed woodpecker.
One reason is that it turns out that I have never actually photographed the male in the species. And thanks to a zoom lens and digital cropping I was able to appreciate how beautifully his plumage contrasts with that of the female sex. His head feathers are indeed red versus black, but not uniformly so like in most males of the woodpecker family. Instead his solid red cap transitions to a speckled red, black and white pattern towards his forehead. While several woodpecker varieties in the area share a similar back feather pattern, I've yet to see such a dapper fellow with the same dappled and flecked crown.
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| Male ladder-backed woodpecker. |
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| Male ladder-backed woodpecker. |
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| Male ladder-backed woodpecker. |
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| Male ladder-backed woodpecker. |
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| Male ladder-backed woodpecker. |
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| Male ladder-backed woodpecker. |
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| Male ladder-backed woodpecker. |
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| Female ladder-backed woodpecker. |
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