Hi Tom et al.: Nice pic of the Red-bellied (RBWO), but I don't know that it's actually ageable as an adult. As for most woodpeckers, young RBWOs have an extensive preformative molt resulting in a very adult-like plumage in their first winter. Unfortunately, the picture provided by Tom does not show the two feather tracts that would enable ageing, the primary coverts and the secondaries, both of which tracts retain the juvenal feathers through the first year. In fact, some of those juv primary coverts and secondaries are retained through their second year, with a minority of birds hanging on to 1 or 2 of them through their third year. Though I am not at all sure, there is a suggestion that the outermost primary covert -- the edge just peeks out from behind the alula -- is brown, which suggests some level of immaturity. Of course, I could be interpreting the apparent color incorrectly.
Enjoy, Tony Leukering Villas, NJ Red-bellied Woodpecker, Crow Valley, Weld County Tom Wilberding Boulder CO <[email protected]> Oct 22 07:03PM -0700 I saw an adult female Red-bellied Woodpecker around 1 pm today at the northwest corner of Crow Valley Recreation Area. Here is a link to the photo I took. http://twilberding.zenfolio.com/p1065013871/he8130de#he8130de The rest of the story: I parked my car at the closed entrance gate and walked in, the whole place to myself. I heard a Downy Woodpecker above the stiff breeze, but didn’t see any birds on the way in. Finally a Blue Jay announced my presence, and what looked to me like a Northern Flicker flew in to inspect me, the intruder. I looked at it and thought, “Hmm, white flicker, no bib. What?” (I am used to hearing a Red-bellied Woodpecker’s “quirrr” sound before seeing one, but this one was silent.) After figuring out what it was I gave credit to the woodpecker for finding me more than I found her. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/cobirds?hl=en.
