• This topic has 61 replies, 26 voices, and was last updated 10 years ago by Muke.
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  • Birdwatchtrackworld
  • whitegoodman
    Free Member

    Having become alarmed over the last couple of years at the decline of some of the birds we used to take for granted, Mrs Goodman and I have of late taken to observing some of the weirder looking ones that turn up at the Birdtable.

    We have all the usual, Robins, Bluetits, Blackbirds, we’ve been pleased to see the return of a solitary sparrow, no sign of Thrushes, got a Woodpecker, then of course the menace Magpies that get chased off along with Seagulls and Crows, but this one had us looking on the web, it sort of looks Chaffinchesque but not quite like all the illustrations seem to indicate, so where else should we turn for the definitive answer but here..


    Any ideas what it is?

    Freester
    Full Member

    Greater spotted woodpecker.

    The significant red blaze on the head identifies male or female but I can’t remember which way round.

    thepurist
    Full Member

    Male greater spotted woodpecker, unless there’s something I’ve missed.

    Males have a red mark on the back of the neck, juveniles have a red cap.

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    Whathaveisaidnow
    Free Member

    did he post the correct picture?

    mtbfix
    Full Member

    the menace Magpies that get chased off along with Seagulls and Crows

    They are all wild birds, you know.

    whitegoodman
    Free Member

    Oops sorry wrong section, can it get moved?

    Woodpecker? yes but it’s green, so you reckon this is one as well, so there must be a pair then, would a red one mate with a green one then, bit of a colour clash that..

    whitegoodman
    Free Member

    mtbfix – Member
    the menace Magpies that get chased off along with Seagulls and Crows
    They are all wild birds, you know.

    Yes, but.. Seaguls are a bloody nuisance always have been and they are not welcome. Mrs Goodman is convinced the Magpies are the reason we don’t have as many of what we used to know as common birds, Thrush, Sparrows, and compared to the dawn chorus we used to know when we first moved in, it’s fairly low key these days.
    Don’t even talk about Crows, they are the spawn of satan.

    Whathaveisaidnow
    Free Member

    Woodpecker? yes but it’s green, so you reckon this is one as well, so there must be a pair then, would a red one mate with a green one then, bit of a colour clash that..

    Bill Oddie would be throwing tantrum at this . . . lol 😀

    [video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxhaZE3OcJc[/video]

    Freester
    Full Member

    No. The green one is an ermm Green Woodpecker.

    Nice that you get both in the garden. The Greater Spotted tends to feed on the feeder whereas the green one probably prefers feeding on the lawn?

    thepurist
    Full Member

    Green woodpeckers are green, black woodpeckers are black and greater spotted woodpeckers are spotty but bigger than lesser spotted woodpeckers.

    They don’t interbreed in much the same way that red footed and blue footed boobies don’t make sweet love to produce purple footed boobies.

    Coyote
    Free Member

    Mmmm….. Boobies

    nbt
    Full Member

    If you get green woodpeckers you’re v lucky, they’re not very common, but more so than the lesser spotted

    http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdguide/families/woodpeckers.aspx

    whitegoodman
    Free Member

    Freester – Member
    No. The green one is an ermm Green Woodpecker.

    Nice that you get both in the garden. The Greater Spotted tends to feed on the feeder whereas the green one probably prefers feeding on the lawn?

    Yes exactly how did you know that?

    I do so hope you’re not the reason my dearest has developed this interest in birdwatching of late..

    hang on how did you even know I had a lawn…[/paranoia]

    unklehomered
    Free Member

    Is this a genius troll? Can we get a picture of the chaffinch this looks like?

    Freester
    Full Member

    Yes exactly how did you know that?

    ‘Coz that’s what they do and I occasionally get both in my garden.

    I do so hope you’re not the reason my dearest has developed this interest in birdwatching of late..

    😉

    hang on how did you even know I had a lawn…[/paranoia]

    mwah hah haw haw

    unklehomered
    Free Member

    Feeling bad about being a mocky, encourage the woodpecker in a month he’ll likely bring the young to the nuts, park him in a near by tree and then get bits of nut and take them to him. Later you get to watch the young one try to land of the feeder, greaty comedy value.

    wysiwyg
    Free Member

    You want to be careful encouraging juveniles to feed on your nuts and posting about it ont ‘net

    Whathaveisaidnow
    Free Member

    wysiwyg
    Free Member

    According to that a chaffinch is marginally biggerer

    unklehomered
    Free Member

    How big are bullfinches? I must only be seeing the drones around the garden, the Queen is enormous!

    Klunk
    Free Member

    these are refusing to leave the garden ! 😕

    nbt
    Full Member

    that chart is not to scale, a greater spotted woodpecker is four or five times the size of a blue tit

    wysiwyg
    Free Member

    Thanks for that Terry Nutkins

    jwr
    Full Member

    A few years back I had a Woodpecker as a regular visitor. The local Blue Tits weren’t impressed:


    Woodpecker on bird feeder by jwrfooo, on Flickr

    whitegoodman
    Free Member

    It was me that guessed chaffinch, my only experience of bird and bird watching was boy scout stuff eons ago so, I looked up chaffinch and it looked sort of similar except the red was the wrong end and given we already had a woodpecker and it was green, you wouldn’t have expected it..

    I should add, this is only a recent interest for all the reasons cited in the intro, and yes if you think it’s a troll then truly I’m a genius and only took that picture precisely to troll cyclists on an internet forum.. 🙄

    Anyway thanks to those in the know I can now go home ce soir with the news we now have two types of Woodpecker, which won’t go down well since we’ve already lost a fine weeping ash at the hands of woodpeckers over the years, maybe it’s them that are the pests.

    So, what do the jury think about magpies? Time was if you saw one, you’d salute and ask how it’s merry wife is today or some similar, now it’s not uncommon to see 8 or 9 in the field (we cal it a field it’s not, it’s just too big to be a called a lawn and the male of the species expected to mow it continually, it’s just a big bit of grass and often full of magpies, or rabbits).

    Klunk
    Free Member

    A few years back I had a Woodpecker as a regular visitor. The local Blue Tits weren’t impressed:

    it’s not surprising Woodpecker will take juvenile bluetits.

    Bunnyhop
    Full Member

    I can’t see a green woodpecker in that picture ^^.

    Bullfinches are quite big, larger than most other finches.

    whitegoodman
    Free Member

    That’s what our woodpecker looks like, so now we have two and if Klunk is correct then that could also be a reason for the general depletion of ‘ordinary’ birds, we’d blamed the Magpies..

    Bunnyhop
    Full Member

    Lovely.
    Green woodpeckers are normally shy birds and mostly feed on the ground, so you were lucky to get one in your garden.

    chinapig
    Free Member

    @Klunk – that’s a male Reed Bunting. Not sure if you were looking for an ID?

    TuckerUK
    Free Member

    We’re lucky enough to have 29 bird species visit our garden:
    Blackcap (1 pair?)
    Blackbirds
    Blue Tits
    Chaffinch (2 pairs?)
    Chickens (fly grazing?)
    Coal Tit
    Collared Doves
    Feral Pigeon
    Great Tits
    Greenfinches
    Green Woodpeckers (3 together, a family?)
    Goldcrest
    Goldfinches
    Gulls
    Jay
    Red-legged Partridges (1 pair)
    Pheasant
    Robins (1 pair?)
    Rooks (1 pair?)
    Siskins (at least one family)
    Starlings
    Sparrow
    Sparrowhawk
    Thrush
    Long Tailed Tit
    Magpie
    2 x Mallard Duck families with (13 ducklings total)
    Moorhen (on hedge then climbing tree)
    Wood Pigeons (innumerable)

    Plus the occasional Muntjac (or Muntjac family), squirrels, & hedgehogs.

    And yes, ordinary house, ordinary area, surrounded on back and both sides by other proprieties.

    andytherocketeer
    Full Member

    Great Spotted Woodpeckers don’t usually have an “er” in the Great.

    See Black Woodpeckers around here from time to time (sometimes in pairs).

    Black Redstarts seem to be quite common too (see some at work, and some seem to nest pretty close by at home too).

    Still need to identify some yellowish kind of bird, that’s kind of chaffinch sized.

    whitegoodman
    Free Member

    Well we’re not quite ready for a Big Year just yet, but since we literally are the last house on the edge of town so semi rural, we really ought to be experiencing the joy of more birds than we currently are.

    We only got into it recently when I bought a bird table after using this place for free parking whilst visiting the dinghy show then feeling guilty, and noticing that we haven’t been woken at five in the morning with the dawn chorus like we used to and there have been one or two items in the press about it, so first hand observation is obviously the best way to enlightenment.

    We’ve had ducks, pheasants (we’re next to a big estate where they breed them to shoot), heron (nicked the fish out of our pond)wood pigeons, crows, rooks (not sure which is which, but we have had two distinctively different types, one last night the head of which looked duck like), but we’re missing Thrushes, Sparrows, Starlings, Wrens, that used to be so common you took them for granted.

    I also keep my eye out when riding and don’t see them much either, then again we never used to see woodpeckers which were kind of a big deal when they first showed up.

    Weasel
    Free Member

    Why has no-one said baby robin yet?

    Klunk
    Free Member

    nice list Tucker i’m surprised no dunnock, fieldfare, bullfinch or Jackdaw though.

    rarest we’ve had is a summer visit from a Brambling.

    geologist
    Free Member

    Ive had 3 bramblings regularly since xmas 🙂

    My garden bird list includes tawny owl and kingfisher, very proud 🙂

    However one guy trumps all that, 2 Christmas’s ago, a stw’er (cant remember who, but was from bristol) had a long staying water rail in his garden. He had photo proof too. That is poss the best garden tick ive heard of, other thsn a dead corncrake turning up in a hampshire garden.

    Whathaveisaidnow
    Free Member

    we had some black caps in our garden once, years ago, in the winter, but unusual…

    Klunk
    Free Member

    Ive had 3 bramblings regularly since xmas

    winter bramblings are as common as muck.

    geologist
    Free Member

    Well not really!

    Whathaveisaidnow
    Free Member

    saw a Barn owl on a post at the side of the road the other day, such a beautiful bird

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