Expert: Julia Booth - 7/3/2009

Question
Hi there!

Hoping you may be able to help me out...
My name is Dustin & I live in St.Catharines, ON. Canada.
I was having coffee outside this morning and heard a bird I have never heard before.  As I am a bird enthusiast (novice!), I noticed this new voice right away.  I looked up to see what I think was a woodpecker, though definitely not a variety I have ever seen before.  I'll give you the description as best I can...
Slightly larger then a Robin, almost Jay sized, golden brown underbelly w/ dark speckles, slightly darker brown top side w/ some speckles, black around it eyes & a BRIGHT red patch on the back of the head.  I did some research and the only bird I found that closely resembled the bird I spotted was a Golden Breasted Woodpecker.  The only problem is that they apparently reside in Argentina!  Could you please help me out?!  It made my day but I am stumped!
Thanks so much.

Dustin Mater

Answer
Just based on the patch you're describing -which is called an occipital patch, I'm thinking it's has to be some variation of the Northern Flicker, the yellow shafted variety perhaps. The only other woodpeckers that have the patch and would be found where you live are the Downy and Hairy and they look nothing like what you described. Also it's summer, and that's when Flickers head north.

You can listen to it here: http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/sounds/Colaptes_auratus.html

And there's a decent gallery of images here: http://vireo.acnatsci.org/search.html?Form=Search&SEARCHBY=Common&KEYWORDS=north...

Remember they can vary in appearance quite a bit and are sexual dimporhic, meaning the female differs from the male. Females can sometimes have a washed out look, faded colors and less definite markings, making it harder to get a positive ID.

Let me know if this helps and if not we'll go from there,

Julia