Red-bellied Woodpecker

[Michael Lloyd]

I had a hard time with the id of this bird but I have 20% confidence that I'm right on the id :D (which is better than the normal confidence level of 0%). I shot this at the Katy Prairie Conservancy which is, according to BNA Online, the westernmost edge of it's range.

The Conservancy is fairly new and seems to embrace birders and bird photographers. I truly hope that they continue to develop their assets to be more accessible to birders and photographers. They are one of the few places in Texas that have Bald Eagles (nesting pair, two nests, and they guard the location fiercely, which is a good thing). I have a number of shots of an adult but they were so far away that the Eagle fit inside the focus ring using a 1DMKIII with 1.4x TC on a 600mm f4L IS lens. Essentially the shots are not good enough to be of any value but it was cool to see the Eagle fishing and doing "Eagle stuff". The Conservancy is home to a lot of wildlife. Coyote, Bobcat, migratory birds of all kinds. It has the potential to become a "Texas Bosque" so it was very exciting to see their facilities and hear their plans.

They do not have much in the way of facilities or easy access to wildlife so close-up's are not easy to come by. This bird was working over a dead tree limb that was in and hanging over the water of Warren Lake, which made for a nice background. I'm not sure what it was doing. It seemed to be "listening".



EOS 1DMKIII Manual
600 f4L IS w/ 1.4x TCII on a monopod

ISO 400
1/400 @f9

[John Chardine]

Looks like a Red-bellied Woodpecker to me Michael. I like the idea here of featuring the perch as much as the bird but to pull it off I think you needed a better head angle with more eye contact.

The bird could have been listening for grubs in the dead tree.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Head angle and lack of eye-contact hurt this image. I like the great perch, but I think you could still crop a good portion without losing it's character. Thanks for the info on this "new" Conservancy, always encouraging that there are new areas designated as such :-)

[Michael Lloyd]

Hmmm... good points. I was caught up in the behavioral aspects of the image. I have a few others and I took the liberty of rotating them drastically. The images "feel" better but there's this little guilt complex thing going on in my head because they are rotated about 45 degrees (or more) CCW and therefore are not what I saw and shot. I'll be interested to hear what you guys think.

[Michael Lloyd]

Not quite as clean and a little different viewpoint. Also rotated drastically.

[Duane Noblick]

Me personally I like the behavioral aspect of the first image along with the perch, background....nothing wrong in thinking differently in Avian photography. It shows this female Red-bellied Woodpecker interacting within it's environment being a Woodpecker...not a model. :)

[Arthur Morris]

I like the second one best. As for the behavior in the ORIG post, John could be right or the bird could have been cleaning its bill. Was it moving or holding still when you created the ORIG image?

[Michael Lloyd]

I like the second one best. As for the behavior in the ORIG post, John could be right or the bird could have been cleaning its bill. Was it moving or holding still when you created the ORIG image?

The second is my favorite as well. Sometimes I find it hard to make a drastic change to an image but it worked out this time.

The bird was just sitting there with it's head on the side of the branch, well... kind of like it was listening.

[Arthur Morris]

John is too, too smart. Listening for grubs--that is a new one on me.