It's a flawed system to be sure and one of the tragic consequences is that subspecies often get ignored. In this "sport" we call birding, points are awarded based upon contemporary lists of species. But these two superficially different birds are considered to make up one and the same "species," with intergrade/hybrids not all that difficult to find. The Northern "Red-shafted" Flicker is dramatically different than our eastern "Yellow-shafted" version, what with it's rosier shafts. Thus far I've omitted the most common woodpecker, partly because I didn't get a photo of it, but mainly because it will help segue into the next post. Williamson's Sapsucker female, Veterans Memorial Park, SylmarĪ big thanks to local birder named Doug, who found all these sapsuckers and then came out to the park to meet us and help track them all down! There's the red nape, Veterans Memorial Park, SylmarĪnd the cherry on top was a female Williamson's Sapsucker. Red-naped Sapsucker male, Veterans Memorial Park, Sylmar as well as its very similar western cousin, the Red-naped Sapsucker. ![]() Yellow-bellied Sapsucker female, Veterans Memorial Park, Sylmar In addition to the expected Red-breasted Sapsucker, this park also had a vagrant, like me, from the east: Yellow-bellied Sapsucker. And here I am blurring the lines again with this nutcracker!īut our best woodpecker moment came in one of those Los Angeles City Park, where we were able to sweep the North American sapsuckers. Or maybe it acts like a giant nuthatch? Anyway I mentioned last time that it was a tossup between Corvids (the two scrub-jays, Steller's Jay, tame Ravens) and Woodpeckers for my favorite bird family of the trip. White-headed Woodpecker, San Gabriel MountainsĪnd also the corvid that thinks it's a woodpecker, Clark's Nutcracker.Ĭlark's Nutcracker, San Gabriel Mountains Up here we saw plenty of White-headed Woodpeckers. The trees seem to jut straight out of the bare rock in places and there's lots of space to stroll and see between the trunks. Speaking of the San Gabiriel Mountains, the higher elevations are covered with some really pleasant parkland pine forests. I would say they are like the western equivalent of Downy woodpecker except that Downies are in California too (we saw one in the San Gabriel Mountains). Nuttall's Woodpecker, San Gabriel MountainsĪnd then there are the underrated Nuttal's Woodpeckers. ![]() In the east, our Gray Squirrels would rob these poor birds blind as they do inevitably to just about all bird seed feeder-ers. I don't know how they keep the squirrels at bay. One of the most ubiquitous is the charming Acorn Woodpecker, famous for caching acorns in tree-trunks. There are actually plenty of trees in Los Angeles County and the woodpecker diversity surprised me. ![]() OK, I may have exaggerated the bleakness of the landscape a bit last time 'round. You may be wondering how the desert wasteland I described in the last post is able to support wood-bearing trees, not to mention the advertised 'peckers. Here is the promised follow-up to my first post on Los Angeles birding about the area's wonderful woodpeckers.
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