Northern Flickers: Yellow-shafted & Red-shafted

Northern "Yellow-shafted" Flicker at Rowe Sanctuary, Nebraska; 7-11-10.

We also saw several Northern Flickers at the Rowe Sanctuary, the Eastern version, or the "Yellow-shafted" Flicker.  Unfortunately I didn't get a great picture of the male (Above) with its prominent black malar (the stripe between the throat and the mustache line). He always seemed to be behind a branch, too far away, or in a shadow. Good identifying features of a Northern Flicker are its black malar, spotted belly, a red crescent on its nape, a black breast band, its white rump, and when it's in flight the underwings are yellow.

The photo (Below) of the same Flicker was in the shadow of a branch that made him appear as if he was wearing a black cap. Initially when I first looked at the photo I didn't even recognize it as a Flicker.

The shadow on the top of this Northern "Yellow-shafted" Flicker made it look like he was wearing a black cap and hood surrounding a reddish face.  This lighting confused my identification, made it look some kind of a weird cross between a wild turkey and a tree perching bird. If I didn't also have the photo (At Top), I still might have stuck it in my "unknown bird" file.

It's black-spotted belly and breast is a sure give-away that it's a Flicker, as no other woodpecker type bird has such definite spotted markings. Other woodpeckers markings on the belly are more of a barred shaped or plain. The photo (Below) is the female Yellow-shafted Flicker. It's identical to the male except without the black malar.  On this photo you can see the red crescent on its nape and its white rump.

Female Yellow-shafted Flicker showing off its red crescent on its nape and white rump which is identical to the male, but does not sport the black malar.

The Western version of the Northern Flicker is the Red-shafted Flicker (Below). It is identical to the Yellow-shafted Flicker except its malar is bright red instead of black and it doesn't sport the red crescent on the nape. Also in flight, its underwings are more reddish-orange instead of yellow. It seems that most of the time when I see a Red-shafted Flicker, it's uually foraging on the ground, but when I see a Yellow-shafted Flicker, it's usually clinging to a dead branch up high in a tree.

 

A female Red-shafted Flicker; Rocky Mountain Nat. Park, CO; 7-8-10.

Is it a Northern, a Baltimore, or an Orchard Oriole?

Is this a male Baltimore or Orchard Oriole? Baltimore traits: orange/yellow coloring, long beak, yellow on its tail feathers;
Orchard traits: black tail, shorter beak, chestnut/orange and black coloring;
 Rowe Sanctuary, Nebraska; 7-11-10.

I saw lots of Orioles at the Rowe Wildlife Sanctuary last summer. Now, whether they were Northern, Baltimore or Orchard Orioles is what I wasn't quite sure about.  If I don't hear them sing or call, I can't really tell them apart ... yet ... I hope I get better at it. 

Okay, first things first. I grew up with the only Oriole in my vocabulary was the Baltimore Oriole. After all a baseball team (Below) is named after them, so it must be accurate. Well not so fast.  Ornithologists determined that Baltimore Orioles (the bird from the Eastern 1/2 of the country, not a baseball player) routinely crossbred with the Bullock's Orioles from the Western 1/2 of the country - where their ranges overlapped. The two Orioles and their hybridized offspring were then considered the same species and renamed as the Northern Orioles. And guess what - Nebraska is on the border of both of their ranges. The Rowe Wildlife Sanctuary is in Nebraska - so now I am completely confused. But wait! Through recent molecular studies of DNA shows that the two species are really not very closely related at all and were subsequently separated as two species again - The Baltimore Orioles from the East and the Bullocks Orioles from the West. 

The Baltimore Orioles Baseball team are not really made up of birds.
Some baseball analysts might suggest they are not baseball players either.
Notice the tail on the bird in the logo has orange on it - the artist must have been a birder.

Now whether or not the Baltimore Oriole baseball players crossbreed with baseball players from the West (let's see, St. Louis Cardinals? nope - Midwest; Toronto Blue Jays? nope- Northeast) I am not at able to say. I couldn't find research on the subject. But baseball analysts might say it's a good thing that there are no Western Baseball teams with bird names for the Orioles to breed with since they have been so bad lately. We would not want to spread bad baseball genes. Okay sorry Oriole fans; I got off the topic. My Milwaukee Brewers aren't much better.

The yellow tail suggests that this male oriole is a Baltimore Oriole; Rowe Sanctuary; Neb. 7-11-10.

Back to birding...they (the males) are very similar with a few subtle differences (or perhaps not so subtle if you are an expert): The Baltimore Oriole (8.75" long) is a good 1.5 inches longer and with a wider wingspan than the Orchard Oriole. But for novice birders like me, I need more experience in the field with both species present for me to learn to use this as a certain identifying trait. I would have to have them both in my hand with a ruler to be sure. The color seems to be a good indicator as the Orchard Oriole is more of a darker chestnut orange than the lighter yellowish orange of the Baltimore. Again for me, unless they were side by side in the same light, these colors would not be an automatic identifying trait.  A third trait would be the Baltimore's beak is a bit longer than the the Orchard's. Again...if they were side by side...yadayadayada.  So how do I know? 

A male Baltimore Oriole at Rowe Sanctuary? 7-11-10.

So far I can see the difference between the juvenile Orchards (Below top and middle) and Baltimores, because of the obvious black throat and lores on the young Orchard (during their 1st year before they grow their black and orange feathers during their 2nd year), which are yellow on the Baltimore (Below bottom). Other than that, I try to look at the tail feathers. It seems that the Orchard's tail feathers are more often than not -  all black; whereas, the Baltimore's tail feathers have extensive yellow/orange outer tail feathers (Top two pics). But again I have Googled Orchard Oriole images and have seen some pics labelled as Orchards with orange tail feathers - I am hoping that they were just misidentified. If they weren't, then that shoots my tail feather identifier to pieces.

A juvenile male Orchard Oriole: yellow body with black throat and lores; Rowe Sanctuary, Neb.; 7-11-10

Another juvenile male Orchard Oriole; Rowe Sanctuary, Neb.; 7-11-10.

Is this a juvenile male or a female Baltimore Oriole?  I would lean toward it being a juvie male with its yellow breast. The female Baltimore would have more white on its breast. On the other hand it could be a female Orchard Oriole which also has a yellowish breast and stomach. So is the color of the Oriole in this photo yellowish/green ( like a female Orchard) or yellowish/orange (like a female Baltimore)?

Now distinguishing between female Orchards and Baltimores are entirely a different matter. Looking at pics or drawings in guide books show the female Baltimore with more white on its stomach and the head and back being a dirtier yellow (brownish grayish); whereas, the female Orchard has more yellow all the way around - head, back and stomach.  The Orchard female is described as being more green/yellow, while the female Baltimore is described as being more orange/yellow.  Again, light plays an important role in whether I seeing yellow/green or yellow/orange. (Above pic)

These look like a pair of young Baltimore Orioles; at left a juvie male and at right a female with its whiter breast;
 Rowe Sanctuary; 7-11-10.

In the end, if I am still not sure which is which, I'd have to give the Baltimore Oriole the benefit of the doubt because it is more common and widespread than the Orchard Oriole.

Red-headed Woodpecker and Red-breasted Sapsucker

Red-headed Woodpeckers were a common sight at the Rowe Wildlife Sanctuary in Nebraska; 7-11-10.

One of the most beautiful sights in the bird world (in my humble opinion) is the flight of a Red-headed Woodpecker. Its white feathers on its wings and tail contrasting with its black body and completely red head is very striking. For the first time I saw a Red-headed Woodpecker while driving to the Rowe Wildlife Sanctuary this past July. I was so excited that I yelled at Val (who was driving) to pull over so I could try to get a picture. It was sitting on a road sign and I hoped that by the time I dug out my camera, put in the settings, got out of the car, and focussed on it, that it would not fly away. Indeed, it stayed put and gave me time for several shots, inching closer with each photo, before it finally decided I was too close for comfort and flew away. Little did I know that once we started hiking inside Rowe Sanctuary a few minutes later, that I would have many oppurtunities to see more Red-Heads (Above and Below, 7-11-10). According to bird guides, the Red-headed Woodpecker does live year round in my neck of the woods (Northern Illinois), but I have never seen nor heard it.

Red-headed woodpecker in Rowe Sanctuary, Nebraska; 7-11-10.

I thought I saw one last summer while hiking to Tokopah Falls in Sequioa National Park, California. However, that would have been quite a rare sighting, as the Red-headed Woodpecker has never been seen in that part of the country. In fact Nebraska and parts of Eastern Wyoming and Montana is the farthest West it has ever been sighted. The bird that I saw in Sequoia was a Red-breasted Sapsucker (Below, 6-24-09).

A Rd-breasted Sapsucker in Sequoia Nat. Park, CA; 6-24-09.

You may see why, by this photo (which doesn't show a clear look at the bird), that I might have guessed it was a Red-headed Woodpecker. It behaved like a woodpecker. But after I really saw a Red-headed WP, I relooked at this older photo and upon further research concluded that it's a Red-breasted Sapsucker. These Sapsuckers have obviously less white on its wings, and it seemed to be the only tree-clinging species of bird that has an entire red head and face that lived out as far as California.

Spotted Towhee

Yesterday, while highlighting the Dickcissel,  I mentioned the Rowe Wildlife Sanctuary near Kearny, Nebraska, and that it is a prime birding area. I am not over emphasizing this place, when I say you will see a dozen of different types of wild birds within minutes of being there. At least that is what happened to Val and me. We weren't walking their trails for more than two hours and identified at least 30 different birds within the first hour. And this was in the middle of summer, not a prime migrating time. Of the 30 birds I identified, five were first timers for me: Dickcissel, Red-headed Woodpecker, Orchard Oriole, Western Kingbird, and the Spotted Towhee (Below, 7-11-10).

I spotted a Spotted Towhee at Rowe Wildlife Sanctuary, Nebraska, 7-11-10.

Rowe Sanctuary is world famous for it being the prime stopping area for the majority of the Sandhill Crane population migration route.  In October and March of each year thousands of Sandhill Cranes can be seen here.  Val says she has seen the large flocks several times while making her annual spring break ski trip to Colorado.  I for one, would love to witness this. I have seen photos of this spectacle at the Rowe website: http://www.rowesanctuary.org/ and urge you to take a look. It's an awesome sight and site. Someday I will make this trip.  It seems that both the peak of Fall and Spring migrations are always the busiest time of my school year and can never get away for such events.

Deer running across the Platte River, Nebraska; 7-11-10.

The Rowe Wildlife Sanctuary boundary runs along the Platte River, and not long after I took one of the trails that led to the river, I heard splashing and saw three deer crossing the river. I didn't get very clear shots of them, but it was a fun sight to see. Having grown up in Wisconsin and living adjacent to a Forest Preserve, I have seen way more than my share of deer in my life, but not often running across a river. I kind of liked the moment and snapped a couple of blurry photos.  Val would laugh at me because I always complain about other people who hold up traffic when they stop in the middle of the road to take a picture of a deer, I scold them, "It's a deer! There's millions of them all over the world! Why do you need a picture?" My photography code seems to be if you're going to hold up traffic to take a picture of wildlife, it had better be of something that isn't seen very often - like a moose or a bear or a wolf (or a bird - ha!), something of that nature - but not a deer or a bunny! So there's my deer picture.  At least I didn't hold up any traffic.

Dickcissel

A Dickcissel singing away at the Rowe Wildlife Sanctuary, Nebraska; 7-11-10.

I have always heard and read that Dickcissels live here in Northern Illinois, but despite all my attempts to locate one, I never encountered one until one day on a bike ride I finally heard one in the tall grass along Blood Pt. Rd (yes that's a name of a road - and I have bled there). I didn't see it, but I definitely recognized its distinctive song.  Now I am not so sure I would have even recognized its song if I didn't see and hear plenty of them (Above) this summer at the Rowe Wildlife Sanctuary (An awesome birding venue) in Nebraska, while passing through on our way back to Illinois from our Colorado trip. Dickcissels come in two types - one a drab brownish bird that can be confused with a sparrows, but the other type has a very colorful yellow and black pattern on its face, throat, and breast as well as reddish wing markings (Below, 7-11-10)

The Dickcissel's colorful yellow, black and reddish markings make it a fine capture for a photograph.