Hi Tiffany,

Young male Hairy Woodpeckers (and White-headed Woodpeckers) both have red
patches on top of their heads. After the first molt, they lose that red and
grow the red feathers on the back of the head as adult birds. Female
youngsters can have a few red feathers on top of their heads, but never to
the extent of males. I can usually sex woodpecker chicks this way starting
from about day 14 or 15 while they are still in the cavity. This is
probably true for Downy Woodpeckers, but I haven't monitored any of their
nests to verify.

Jeff Kozma

Yakima

jcr underscore 5105 at charter dot net


----- Original Message -----
From: "Tiffany" <tiffany.linbo at gmail.com>
To: <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Sent: Sunday, May 23, 2010 12:50 PM
Subject: [Tweeters] Hairy Woodpecker and Dark-eyed Junco fledglings


> For the past week, two hairy woodpecker fledglings have been coming to our
> feeders. I watched both mom and dad feed them suet from our feeders.
> Today, I manged to snap a few decent pictures through the glass door. Both
> of the fledglings lack red on their heads and have extensive black on the
> back of their heads, making the white eye stripe above their eye look more
> like an eyebrow. A picture of a hairy woodpecker fledgling can be found
> here:
>
> http://nwbirding.com/images/backyard%20pic/hairyfledgling.jpg
>
> In years past, I've always seen hairy woodpecker fledglings in our
> backyard with red on their crown. Is this just a common plumage variation
> for hairy woodpecker fledglings? Any thoughts appreciated.
>
> Last week, I also noticed two dark-eyed junco fledglings in our yard.
> Picture of one here:
>
> http://nwbirding.com/images/backyard%20pic/juncofledgling.jpg
>
> Now there is no sign of the fledglings, but the parents are still around.
> So maybe they are starting a new brood. It's always fun to see the new
> generations of birds each spring and summer!
>
> Tiffany Linbo
> tiffany.linbo at gmail.com
> Mountlake Terrace, WA
> http://nwbirding.com
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