A male Pileated Woodpecker inspects an old feeding hole in a weathered stump. The red mustache distinguishes the guys from the females.
A female Pileated Woodpecker flies low over a shaded winter snow bank. Both males and females sport crests of red feathers, and the males also have a red mustache. Behind the lens. There's more to the story of this bird. She's missing her central tail feathers ("retrices"), which is normal when the bird is molting. But when I showed this photo to my neighbors, they said, "We know that bird!" She was feeding at their suet feeder when a squirrel ran up the tree to chase her away, and a few feathers were seen floating to the ground after the altercation. They said that the strange thing is, the squirrel never eats the suet.
Adult Black-crowned Night Herons(Nycticorax nycticorax) sport fine white plumes from the back of their heads. They are the night shift of the heron world, feeding after dark in the same areas that other herons use during the day.
