Seems the old "Boids" thread has been lost in the ether. Any help with identifying this boid? Looked about 8" tall and was only hopping around and then hopped into the side of the tree. Didn't want to get to much closer as it seemed scared. I'm guessing some baby hawk but was not aware of any hawks nest in the trees. Have a wood duck nest in one tree but all I know of for sure.
Isn't that a red-bellied woodpecker? Also I think that old thread got nuked when Petro had to delete all the old image threads.
This was bigger than a full grown red crowned woodpecker and I was thinking it was only a juvenile That was my first thought because the coloring is very similar but the size is what is throwing me. Unless I am just thinking it is a juvenile and it's actually almost full grown. When it was hopping around on the ground it looked much fatter than any woodpecker I have seen around here. The more I think about it, after both your posts, it is probably a woodpecker, just the Baby Huey of woodpeckers. The beak did look a lot more curved when it was on the ground than with it sitting on the tree.
Here's some pics of a baby woodpecker I saved from getting run over... I named him Peckerwood. 2nd shot is him safely home with Dad... or Mom. Every year I'd get a woodpecker family in that tree... it fell down a couple of years ago. I don't miss the noise.
Looks like a Northern Flicker to me but I can't tell for sure because I can't see the head from the side. They're about the same size as a Pileated Woodpecker, which are bigger than Blue Jays (for size). And people made fun of that thread, btw. : ) I saw a juvenile Bald Eagle the other day. I passed it real fast driving so I hooked around and pulled over. At 1st I thought it was a Great Horned Owl (those are incredible) because I saw tufts sticking out on her head. I got really excited because they're so elusive. As soon as I got out of the car and got a better look I realized what she was. It was an optical illusion. She was molting so she looked like he was having a bad hair day. I say she because female Balds are about 30% bigger than males and a male would have been too big for that age. I wanted to see her take off so I made a Barred Owl sound and she shifted her weight from foot to foot to get her bearings because she's a relatively new flyer. Wing span was pretty fckn sweet.
Herons are so grumpy. They can actually be fairly aggressive, so never approach. If they're even mildly injured they will go apeshit on you. They make such an ugly gutteral dinosaur like noise. Well, not that I ever heard a dinosaur noise, but birds are descendants so I use my imagination, ha.
The wife and I play almost every day. Lots of expansions for different birds from around the world. Learned more about birds playing the game than I ever thought I would. I will say, as someone who loves boardgames and loves learning the rules for new games, I had a hard time my first play with Wingspan. But once it clicks (which should be by end of game), it is super easy to play.
I'm a Bird Nerd, obviously. I'm a member: https://www.audubon.org/birding/identifying-birds A good site to check out is https://www.allaboutbirds.org They have an app called Merlin that's pretty good.
Bald Eagle's nest. I've taken several photos of it over the last few years. The juvenile I saw the other day, that's where she's from. Sometimes I see the mated pairs white heads sticking out (from a VERY respectful distance).I have to keep it on the down low where it is. It's on semi-private property, but that's not really the reason why. People are fckn assholes. They will harass them or worse. "Let's shoot them! Wouldn't that be funny as shit?" I'm not even kidding. It already happened some years ago (not this pair). Some people should be subject to forced sterilization. It would be doing the world a favor.
Sorry for the poor quality of the photos to follow. A Peregrine Falcon, one of my all time favorite birds of prey. I'm a Raptor Girl all the way, I live for it. This Peregrine got hit by a car and can't fend for himself so he's cared for by an expert handler. A Golden Eagle. Same handler, same injury to the bird. He was telling me how one time for no reason she decided to hook a talon in his nostril. He was crapping pineapples. If he made one false move and the eagle got moody or spooked, his face was gone. He went on to say it was the longest five minutes of his life. She finally released and let go. He had a bloody nose, but an intact one. I haven't been blessed with seeing one of these in the wild. They migrate through the Northeast, but I've never gotten lucky.
