Hello,

I would not at all be surprised to see a sapsucker
raise the feathers on the top of its head slightly in
alarm. This is not at all uncommon in many species of
birds.

As for the chickadees...Growing up in St. Louis, I
used to listen to both Black-capped and Carolina
Chickadees singing. I really do miss the song of the
Black-cappeds in that part of the country. Ours sing
too, but it is quite different and I took me totally
by surprise the first time I heard it about 5 years
ago when a pair nested in our yard. Rather than the
distinctive "Feebee" I used to hear, the birds here
give a 3-whistle song, with all of the whistles on the
same pitch. Often (but not always) the first whistle
is longer in duration than the other two. I have
heard many variations of this, but almost without
fail, every chickadee I have heard since moving here
has kept their song on the same pitch.

Michael Dossett
Bothell, WA
phainopepla at yahoo.com




--- Lee Rentz <leerentz at ix.netcom.com> wrote:
> Yesterday when I stepped outside my house to take a
> few puffs on a
> cheap cigar, I noticed a Red-breasted Sapsucker
> feeding on the trunk
> of a Bigleaf Maple. I assessed the photo
> possibilities, quickly
> abandoned my cigar, and assembled the long lens,
> camera, and tripod.
>
> Then I quietly walked up to the tree, stopping about
> 15' away to
> watch the bird as it fed. The 1/4" holes it had
> drilled were about
> 5' above the ground, in a maple perhaps a foot in
> diameter. Later I
> counted 17 fresh holes, spaced an average of 3/4"
> apart, and spanning
> a (relatively) straight line around the tree.
>
> The sapsucker was just a bit nervous at my presence,
> but whenever I
> spooked it with an unexpected move, it quickly went
> back to the line
> of sap wells. It would feed for a couple of seconds
> at a hole, then
> scootch over and feed at the next hole, and so on.
>
> This went on for a half an hour in late afternoon,
> when I figured I
> had enough pictures (the sapsucker had more patience
> than I and
> continued feeding after I left). Interestingly, the
> sapsucker was
> ingesting so much sap that it defecated a stream of
> white fluid about
> every four minutes.
>
> Two questions for you superbirders out there:
>
> 1. It struck me that when agitated, the sapsucker's
> red,
> head-topping feathers would raise slightly--rather
> like those of a
> Ruby-crowned Kinglet. Is this true, or was it a
> nicotine/caffeine-caused hallucination?
>
> 2. Unrelated: I moved here years ago from the
> Midwest, where
> Black-capped Chickadees make a whistling (and
> slightly mournful)
> "feebee" call. I have this species in my yard, but
> I can't recall
> hearing that song. Do I need a hearing aid or is
> this behavior
> missing here?
>
> I had a Western Screech-owl calling at 8:15 pm last
> night from the
> alders and cedars near my house. The night before,
> I checked the
> feeders in the middle of the night and saw a flying
> squirrel panic
> and take a flying leap off the deck.
>
> Lee Rentz
> lee at leerentz.com
> Shelton, WA
>
>


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