Cool Woodpecker Shots

Here's another woodpecker shot from testing at Carpenter.

I love this shot of a male downy woodpecker.  He looks as if he is saying, "You lookin' at me?  Yeah, I'm banging this suet, you wanna make somethin' of it?" 

Actually, what I think is really going on is that the downy has just landed on the feeder and is getting his balance as the feeder is swinging back and forth.  You can tell this is downy woodpecker as opposed to a hairy woodpecker because of the downy looking feathers around the bill and the size of the feeder in relation to the woodpecker.

Here is a larger hairy woodpecker.  It's hard to tell from this angle, but the bill is much longer and larger on this species than on a hairy.  You can also see a band on the woodpecker's foot.  This is the same woodpecker from the previous shot.  Since you can get so close with this camera, you really get a chance to notice tiny details.