Red Bellied Woodpecker

While looking for migratory bird nests on Sunday, I heard a bird call I'm not use to. I was in the back of our subdivision near the protected conservation where there are many very tall pine trees, both alive and dead. It is such a quiet peaceful part of the neighborhood and I was the only one around. The call noises were different so I knew I had to locate it, and it wasn't long before I did! What a beauty. She eventually went in that hole. I have seen woodpeckers in the trees at my house but they don't stay long and never at the feeders. Maybe I will start making some suet. We do have Indian Hawthorne bushes that berry so maybe they have found them.  I love the bright red, black, and gray with pattern of a woodpecker, and she is just gorgeous. 

I wanted to verify the type of woodpecker and got this information from a helpful member, named "Bird Brain" over at whatbird.com

"It's a female Red-bellied Woodpecker. A male would have red on his crown as well as his nape...this one only has red on her nape. You will rarely see the red on ones belly..it's faint and not often visible."

Now that I know it is a female I might go back and see if I can see some little ones poking their heads out of that hole. That is what I was thinking about the entire time I was photographing her.

Nests - subdivision tree trimming-orange-plastic-ties

Today we noticed a few oak trees on our street tagged with orange ties. There is no id on them to identify who they may belong to or what they are there for.  I wonder if it is trees tagged with nests in them so they don't get the Orange County trimming, see 4/18/14 post? I took a peek to see what I could see in them. I found large leafy high nests in the main trunk where limbs branch out. Large enough for a squirrel or maybe even a raccoon. Hmmm. So I drove around the entire neighborhood (700 homes situated on an estimated 100-200 acres with 100's of trees) and found 10 trees tagged with the orange plastic ribbon in the front part of the neighborhood (where I live). I believe I checked all but three of them and they all had the same type of nest I describe above, larger nests in the main trunk bifurcation.

During my nest find, I found around 14-15 other nests in oak trees but without the orange tie. They are smaller cupping nests, the size a cardinal makes, and some are flat mourning dove. They are not obvious to see, camouflaged, blending seamlessly in the oak tree branches using oak tree moss, leaves, grass, and twigs. One of the nests, I see a female cardinal sitting in. I first found her on a branch within the tree, and I was patient to stay long enough to see where she went. I have a several pictures of it. This active nest is in a branch hanging over the street  in the trim zone. The tree is not tagged nor is any of the trees with the 14-15 passerine songbird size nests I observed.

the anonymous ribbon found on 10 trees without any identification to whom it belongs or why it is there.

large nests on the main trunk are found in the trees with orange plastic ties. These are not nests of the passerines we were focused to save. These are the easy nests to spot.

this isn't really off the main trunk bifurcation but it's a larger leafy nest - no orange tie.

------------these nests below this line are camouflaged, small, hidden. No orange tie found. One apparent nest is seen with a female cardinal sitting in it.  -----------

-------END female cardinal sitting in what looks to be a nest ---------------------

-------BEGIN sampling of other nests found in oak trees where trunk not tagged with orange tie--------

female house finch

The smaller birds love this squirrel proof feeder. The cardinals are too big to use it so the finches and other smaller birds have their own place. If the cardinals are feeling nasty, they'll still chase them out.

house finch couple dining

female northern cardinal - bathtime!

having a great big splash bath!

Female American Goldfinch

cutie patootie. Verified species with whatbird.com.