I turned to my Audubon guru, Don Torino. He quickly explained that my unrecognized bird was a Northern Flicker which was a first sighting of this species for me in Riverdale. However, it turned out that I was closer than I thought to an identification. Both species – Woodpeckers and Flickers – are members of the same Family, the Picidae.
Sura,
Thanks for the Erev Shabbos fresh breath of nature. Those birds are beautiful! And your bird feeder is quite unique.
Actually that is not my birdfeeder. I didn’t have any good photos of my own and so I used a free-use photo from online.
Haven’t seen the northern flicker yet. Red bellied is a regular at our feeder as are Cardinals, mourning doves, sparrows, finches
What a lovely reminder of how we share this planet with so many other creatures.
I was surprised to learn that Scrub Jays, who are cousins of crows, actually mourn the loss of family members.
Maybe we’re not as different as we once thought…