Mike in the Wild

The most common woodpecker in Arizona's deserts is probably the Gila woodpecker.  From a distance he's sometimes confused with the gilded flicker, especially from behind, because they each have a black latticed pattern on their backs.  But the Gila is much smaller and has a plainer front, lacking the black-speckled torso and black chest plate of the gilded.  Also, the Gila male sports a red cap versus the gilded's red mustache as their sex's distinguishing feature. One thing the pair share is an attraction to my backyard's hummingbird feeder.  They each cling to it like they do the bark of tall trees and palms, and slurp the sugar water with their long, skinny tongues.  So for this edition of the blog, I'd like to welcome the Gila woodpecker to my periodic posts on lucky backyard birding.  Remember that sometimes a look outside your window is all you need to experience another adventure in the wild. Male Gila woodpecker, above, and female gilder flick...

One of my original inspirations for the "Mike in the Wild" blog was to have a vehicle by which I could easily share photos with friends.  Since my favorite subjects were birds and nature, I came up with a name that captured the essence of my material - an individual and his personal experience in the outdoors.  While I've been fortunate to visit numerous parks and wilderness areas, I'm always amazed at how much my backyard and the view outside my window remind me I'm already in the wild. To that point, just this week, I heard the tell-tale piercing caw of a flicker outside a sliding glass door while I busily typed on the computer.  Not the first time to hear it, I knew I wouldn't be disappointed in getting my camera.  Sure enough, when I peered out the window I saw a gilded flicker - this time a female - eyeing my yard's hummingbird feeder from a nearby hanging lamp.  She's a type of woodpecker and the largest bird in the neighborhood, so when she fi...

For many years, the only woodpecker I knew was not real.   Later, having moved to Arizona and discovered a passion for nature and wildlife, I soon realized that the Southwestern individuals in this family of birds bore no resemblance to Woody in the cartoon. When I started visiting Prescott regularly, I quickly became familiar with the mountain-loving acorn woodpecker.  These penguin-looking birds have been referred to as a 'troupe of wide-eyed clowns,' and a short time witnessing a group's tree-darting and squawking made me agree with the metaphor.  In fact, the creator of the "Woody the Woodpecker" cartoons was supposedly inspired during an encounter with this bird's raucous noise-making while staying in a cabin. Arizona is home to many species of the woodpecker, all in the family picidae , whose members span most of the globe.  While all of the local birds aren't as noisy as the acorn, most seem to exhibit the tell-tale woodpecker behavior of foragi...