EISPIRATEN

Help! What kind of bird is this? Saw it 9/21/2008 on Mt. Baldy. The white wing patch is throwing me for a loop.

It looks like the Acorn Woodpecker based on the long bill. Comparable to this

Looks more like a hairy woodpecker to me, though not completely

From
http://whatbird.wbu.com/obj/179/_/Hairy_Woodpecker.aspx

Is the white on the wing, or belly?

I'm having a hard time finding good ID guides online.

I don't think it's an Acorn...the markings on the head are wrong. The Hairy looks close, but not positive. Not sure but I think the white patch is on the wing - but my digital camera is terrible at taking bird pics.

For online bird id I use http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/

My field guide is The Sibley Field Guide to Birds of Western North America

I'm satisfied with both.

Darned if I know. Looks a bit like a Nuttall's, but I can't make a positive ID. The postocular and moustachial markings should be distinctive, but I can't quite pin it down.

Probably a female? Perhaps immature?

I found the Cornell site, and it's very descriptive - if you know what you're looking for.
In this example, I had to search woodpecker, get five pages of hits and look at every link (I didn't make it to all of them)
I'd like a good decision tree type site
ie
woodpecker - lieves in west, red on head? - go here - white on belly? - no, go here
ah, that's a whatever woodpecker

Here is a site that is good for generating a species checklist on a state by state basis (would be nice to get a list for a more narrow area). I haven't used the site much so I'm not sure what else it is good for...but I think you can describe the bird and search for matches...

http://www.bdi.org/index.htm

For California, here is the pecker list...

Order: Piciformes (woodpeckers & allies)

Family: Picidae (woodpeckers)
Colaptes auratus -Northern Flicker
Colaptes chrysoides -Gilded Flicker
Dryocopus pileatus -Pileated Woodpecker
Melanerpes formicivorus -Acorn Woodpecker
Melanerpes lewis -Lewis's Woodpecker
Melanerpes uropygialis -Gila Woodpecker
Picoides albolarvatus -White-headed Woodpecker
Picoides arcticus -Black-backed Woodpecker
Picoides nuttallii -Nuttall's Woodpecker
Picoides pubescens -Downy Woodpecker
Picoides scalaris -Ladder-backed Woodpecker
Picoides villosus -Hairy Woodpecker
Sphyrapicus nuchalis -Red-naped Sapsucker
Sphyrapicus ruber -Red-breasted Sapsucker
Sphyrapicus thyroideus -Williamson's Sapsucker
Sphyrapicus varius -Yellow-bellied Sapsucker

Based on pics at this site I thinking Williamson's Sapsucker or a Red-naped Sapsucker (without the red bits). I should have asked him for id when I had the chance.

I'm going with the Williamson Sapsucker id until someone convinces me otherwise.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Williamson%27s_Sapsucker

The bird I saw was drilling holes in the bark of the tree like in the pictures on the wiki link above. The entire tree had rows of holes drilled in it. The tree was located right on the trail from the ski hut up to the ridge (pretty close to the ridge I think). Next time you're up there, look for the tree with a million holes in it!

Ah, very good. I'll buy that.

3rd vote for Williamson

Your picture is missing the color, and some of the wing bars.
But so do a lot of the other images I found.

Your feeding observations help also.

Within the limits of your photo, that's what it is.

Rumpled wrote:Within the limits of your photo...

That's the key. The one taking the photo has the advantage of actually seeing the bird move, fly, etc. I did see a little patch of red on his throat which agrees with the Williamson. The yellow belly shown in some pics could have been obscured or even non-existent (also seen in some web pics).

Thanks ya'll.

Geez... late as usual...

That's a Williamson for sure. (I guess that makes me a 4th vote.)

Mike P wrote:Geez... late as usual...

That's a Williamson for sure. (I guess that makes me a 4th vote.)

Thanks Mr. P. Here's a picture of a few of the holes the bird was drilling...