Birds and Nature

I started off to just do a count of the female Williamson's Sapsuckers today as there are so many birds it seemed like it would be easier to just count the males and females on different days, but shifts in sapsucker locations changed my plan. The first sapsucker I spotted this morning at Centennial Park was a male, the first time I have seen a male at this location this year. Then I realized there were two sapsuckers in that same pine tree, one a male and the other a female. Sapsuckers do not like to share. The male proceeded to behave aggressively towards the female-he raised his crest and moved towards her, and get this--he gave a churr call then what sounded like he hissed at her. I was only 20-25 feet away so I could hear the interaction fairly well and it sounded like a hiss. (Of course, I can't find anything in the literature about such a sound by this species though I did find that young Red-headed Woodpecker nestlings do hiss.) Anyway, this caused the female to retreat...

I was able to get a little better pic, albeit a back view, of this Williamson's Sapsucker, that I have added as the top pic. Today I also found this female Williamson's Sapsucker in Canon City,CO today, but this one was feeding in the pines at Centennial Park, another location that has hosted wintering sapsuckers over the past 6 years. This female was high up the tree and quite shy so the pic is not as good as some of the other sapsucker pics. SeEtta

In this very short clip the Williamson's Sapsucker stops feeding and appears to react to a motorcycle driving past on road, then probes a few more times before moving away. This is a very shy bird.