Still having to refill our bird feeder about once a day, and we're hosting a wide variety of birds. Maybe the most unusual is a woodpecker that I have been trying to photograph for the last two weeks. It shows up several times a day, but never when I have a camera or even my phone.
He (actually, I think it's a She) doesn't land on the little perch like all the other birds, it hangs underneath and like a little avian contortionist, it reaches over to get seeds. I read that their tongues reach about two inches past their beaks and have little barbs that let them snag their food.
What I don't understand is the name - It known as is a Red-Bellied Woodpecker - and I wonder what sort of head trauma was suffered by whoever named it. Its belly is white as new fallen snow and the only red on its entire body is a splash of red on its forehead - more on males, less on females. I assume that Red-Headed was already taken, and White-Bellied lacks pizazz, but why name the poor critter something that it obviously is not?
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