Greensboro Birds

Walking Happy this afternoon, I spotted a male Pileated Woodpecker excavating this nest cavity. Murphy’s Birding Law applied—I didn’t have the camera. By the time I returned the bird had departed, but I figured I’d show you his handiwork anyway. Pretty good job, considering they’re freehanding it.

Hearing some deliberate pecking nearby, I followed the sound to a very tall dead tree with a very round hole. I leaned back on a tree and looked for the pecking bird, but couldn’t find it. I had a hunch, though, and trained the zoom on the hole and waited. Sure enough, in a few minutes this female Red-Bellied Woodpecker popped out. (The male came over a couple times, but I didn’t get a good shot of him.) You can tell this is a female because the red doesn’t go all the way over her head, as it does on the male.