Audience participation time. I found this distinctive feather just outside the front door this morning. It's about 6 inches long. Can you identify the bird that it came from?
It's the wing feather of a pileated woodpecker.
These birds get up to 16" tall, have a wingspan of 30" , and look positively prehistoric. The feather I found is from a wing, as you can see here.
Once again, thanks to my neighbor Juan Pons for the incredible picture, taken close by where we have a couple of breeding pairs living around our woods. My shots simply can not match his. For more of Juan's photography, check out Wild Nature Photo.
Thanks also to Alan Folger, the only one with the courage to make a guess here. Alan's beautiful pen and ink work can be seen at Clearwater Memories . Enjoy!!!
Rose Breasted Grossbeak?
ReplyDeleteThe grosbeak was such a good guess that it had me making sure that I had made the right identification. But, sad to say, size does matter....
ReplyDelete