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Posted by Jim Duquesnel on 13:46:28 03/24/10
In Reply to: Re: Flicker Nesting Box posted by Molly R
Adults of any of south Florida's woodpeckers (listed by size in descending order: pileated, flicker, red-headed, red-bellied, yellow-bellied sapsucker, and downy) will have some red on their heads, except downy females. I think downy woodpeckers are are pretty uncommon in south Florida, and the very few I see have gone home north by now anyway.
No South Florida woodpeckers are "gray all over." How bad are your neighbor's eyes? Could he be blurring finely barred black and white backs of RBW or YBSS into gray? Flickers are distinctly larger and heavier than all but the nearly crow-sized pileated. They should be the most distictive of our common woodpeckers: relatively big and the only one with a tan back. The bright yellow flashes undersides of the wings are also distinctive, but only visible when they fly.
Providing a nest box will often encourage nesting, but males (especially RBW) will still find something loud (and really annoying) to drum on - metal satellite dishes and tv antenna masts seem to be among their favorites in our neighborhood. And, they really like stuff that produces a good echo. It might be tolerable if they would just sleep in a little on weekends, but ours are up and at it close to sunrise.
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