> Over the past couple of weeks I have noticed a red-breasted sapsucker
> landing on a shingled roof and spreading it's feathers (I hesitate to
> use the term spread-eagled with a woodpecker). This weekend it landed
> on our deck where I could observe it a little closer. The sun was
> shining and the deck was heating up nicely. The bird again spread out
> wings and tail, and stayed flattened to the deck until it began to
> pant (?), beak agape. It uttered several very strange calls (mewing,
> chirping, and an almost donkey-like braying sound), fluttered around a
> little, then tried to walk (very difficult for a woodpecker on a flat
> surface). Then it fluffed and rearranged it's feathers and flew away.
> I didn't see any preening actions.
>
> Could this be a strategy to overheat lice or other parasites and make
> them leave? Would this be a possible alternative to the acid effect
> of "anting"? Do woodpeckers eat the ants/termites and use this heat
> strategy instead?
>
> It was very interesting for us to observe, in any case. I'm basically
> a "lister" (55 yard birds since I moved here in February). Does this
> "observation" now entitle me to a promotion to birdwatcher?
>
> Bruce Helmboldt

Very much so, in my opinion. And I'd like to suggest that "listers" in the
classical sense, as we've discussed them herein, are people who make rather
substantial efforts to add to the various lists they keep, rather than
people who merely keep one or more lists of the birds they encounter.
Maybe you were a birdwatcher all along....and Byron Butler's comments
notwithstanding, I imagine that most listers are birdwatchers.

About the sapsucker, I wouldn't be surprised if your conclusion was correct.

Dennis Paulson, Director phone: (206) 756-3798
Slater Museum of Natural History fax: (206) 756-3352
University of Puget Sound e-mail: dpaulson at ups.edu
Tacoma, WA 98416