High Country!
Over the weekend I spent some time in the high country snowshoeing in Rocky Mountain National Park. The temperature held around 30 degrees farenheit which I consider to be warm this time of year at 10,000 feet. All of the hardcore outdoorsy people were on the trails, but still not enough to erase the solitude for which I came. The diversity of birds at high elevation is naturally low this time of year, but some of the birds that do brave the winter have lots of food to feed on, given their adaptations.
One of the sounds I associate with such blistering conditions is a woodpecker drum that starts off like a normal drum but increases with speed at the end of the drill. This drum that I speak of belongs to the American Three-Toed Woodpecker (ATTW) which inhabits the spruce-fir habitat above 8500 feet. Very similar to the Hairy Woodpecker, one must be careful of it's identification especially if you are looking through dense foliage. The drumming is very distinct and different than that of the Hairy and can be used with confidence to identify this species, but other details come into play as well. Concerning habits, ATTW tend to stick to the lower portion of the trees in which it feeds on (flaking away bark in search of insects). Hairy can be found foraging at all heights of the forest, thus if you were to find a Hairy/ATTW in the area and it happened to be feeding in the canopy you can be close to sure that your bird in question is a Hairy Woodpecker.
Female American Three-toed Woodpecker photographed by Mike Freiberg
Female Hairy Woodpecker photographed by Bill Schmoker
Looking at both Hairy and ATTW (like the one above) can show that the differences can be quite well defined, but in a dense spruce forest (where the foliage reaches the ground level) this can impact a birder's confidence. The Rocky Mountain race of the ATTW, dorsalis, has a clean white oval on the back of the bird whereas other races have white with black bars running down creating a ladder effect. Hairy will exhibit more white in the moustacial area on the cheek, but again can vary and be hard to see. Hairy is slightly larger with a longer bill and this is evident in the field after seeing some of both. Furthermore, for me one of the tell tale signs is the barred flanks of the ATTW. Hairy shows clean white ventrally and this is always visible in the field.
The male ATTW would show a slight yellow cap in all seasons thus telling us the photo above is a female ATTW. Just the same way, male Hairy woodpecker shows a red nape in all seasons and the female shows no color. Take a look at both photos above and see if you can see some of these differences I am talking about.
Interestingly enough, most woodpeckers have a toe arrangement called Zygodactyl where they have two toes pointing front and two toes pointing back. However, the ATTW has more of an Anisodactyl-type arrangement where two toes are pointing forward and one to the back, losing the fourth toe. However, an Anisodactyl arrangement has three to the front and one toe to the back This is what makes this bird special!
Many of these woodpeckers were bopping around me on my hike. Most of them I heard knowing the sharp, piercing, "PIIINK," of the Hairy and the much lower, "TEEK" of the ATTW. The ATTW will also give a crying-like whinny when disturbed. But other species took notice of my presence and one to expect on such occasions are the Gray Jays.
The male ATTW would show a slight yellow cap in all seasons thus telling us the photo above is a female ATTW. Just the same way, male Hairy woodpecker shows a red nape in all seasons and the female shows no color. Take a look at both photos above and see if you can see some of these differences I am talking about.
Interestingly enough, most woodpeckers have a toe arrangement called Zygodactyl where they have two toes pointing front and two toes pointing back. However, the ATTW has more of an Anisodactyl-type arrangement where two toes are pointing forward and one to the back, losing the fourth toe. However, an Anisodactyl arrangement has three to the front and one toe to the back This is what makes this bird special!
Many of these woodpeckers were bopping around me on my hike. Most of them I heard knowing the sharp, piercing, "PIIINK," of the Hairy and the much lower, "TEEK" of the ATTW. The ATTW will also give a crying-like whinny when disturbed. But other species took notice of my presence and one to expect on such occasions are the Gray Jays.
Gray Jay photographed by Mike Freiberg
I was sitting on the edge of a lake eating a granola bar for lunch when a family group came to investigate. One even landed two inches from my boot to feed it's curiosity. They're truly a common bird in Colorado at high elevation, but these guys never get old. Plus, when there is a lull in the birding these Corvids are usually around to entertain. They sometimes will follow you and constantly jump in front of your face if your not paying enough attention to them.
Birds will always be around, but it is always the mammals that can be hard to see, so I was pleasantly surprised when this Pine Squirrel that jumped in front of my camera.
Birds will always be around, but it is always the mammals that can be hard to see, so I was pleasantly surprised when this Pine Squirrel that jumped in front of my camera.
Pine Squirrel photographed by Mike Freiberg
So a very successful day it was and I thank Mother Nature for providing us with such great life. I wish everyone a great day and Good Birding.
2 comments:
I think you meant two, not three, toes pointing forward, and one back. Otherwise, I think it would have to win the award for the most blatant species name misnomer!
I hadn't known that about the foraging differences. I don't have much experience with the three-toed, but now that you mention it, both times they were relatively low (less than 20 feet).
Grant,
You are absolutely correct! Thanks for pointing out my error. I agree (LOL) that would be an odd balance for a woodpecker. The foraging thing was taught to me a lot time ago and still holds true today from my experiences. Good convo...thanks Grant! I'll get that changed!
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