On the subjects of birds of my place, part 4
To familiarize myself with this place again, I read a dozen or so of my former entries, and was horrified by the quality of writing; the content is bad and form worse, especially grammar, which makes things incomprehensible. Sorry. Shrug. I did my best, will do again.
Did I tell you that close to my place there is a largish park? Quite a lot of birds, too, most common kinds, of course, but thanks to some dense bushes etc. which serve as nesting grounds, there is 40+ different species around here.
There are plenty of rooks and crows in the park, but not this colour. Plus they rarely sit upright in the tree. I didn't want to frighten it badly, so didn't come too closely, but I was close enough to be sure what it was. Nothing too strange - this kind of park/loose forest is typical habitat for the bird, although it does not necessarily come to the centres of large cities and I have never seen one here before. Please allow me to introduce:
Green woodpecker. As I said, it was more khaki-brown than truly green, but the red cap was unmistakable, plus its yellow rump was easy to spot. Screeched a bit, as it flew, than sat upright, woodpecker-fashion.
Quoting the fountain of all knowledge, the species measures 30-36 cm in length with a 45-51 cm wingspan. Both sexes are green above and pale yellowish green below, with yellow rump and red crown and nape; the moustachial stripe has a red centre in the male but is solid black in the female [...] is usually found in semi-open landscapes with small woodlands, hedges, scattered old trees, edges of forests and floodplain forests. Suitable habitats for foraging include grassland, heaths, plantations, orchards and lawns. Most interestingly, it is highly sedentary and individuals rarely move more than around 500 m between breeding seasons, therefore I may have a chance to meet it again and it may actually live there, but so far it had taken care to hide in leaves and I did not spot it before.
Beautiful autumn we have this year, and although the golden leaves are falling now to the ground, they uncover woodpeckers!
Did I tell you that close to my place there is a largish park? Quite a lot of birds, too, most common kinds, of course, but thanks to some dense bushes etc. which serve as nesting grounds, there is 40+ different species around here.
There are plenty of rooks and crows in the park, but not this colour. Plus they rarely sit upright in the tree. I didn't want to frighten it badly, so didn't come too closely, but I was close enough to be sure what it was. Nothing too strange - this kind of park/loose forest is typical habitat for the bird, although it does not necessarily come to the centres of large cities and I have never seen one here before. Please allow me to introduce:
Green woodpecker. As I said, it was more khaki-brown than truly green, but the red cap was unmistakable, plus its yellow rump was easy to spot. Screeched a bit, as it flew, than sat upright, woodpecker-fashion.
Quoting the fountain of all knowledge, the species measures 30-36 cm in length with a 45-51 cm wingspan. Both sexes are green above and pale yellowish green below, with yellow rump and red crown and nape; the moustachial stripe has a red centre in the male but is solid black in the female [...] is usually found in semi-open landscapes with small woodlands, hedges, scattered old trees, edges of forests and floodplain forests. Suitable habitats for foraging include grassland, heaths, plantations, orchards and lawns. Most interestingly, it is highly sedentary and individuals rarely move more than around 500 m between breeding seasons, therefore I may have a chance to meet it again and it may actually live there, but so far it had taken care to hide in leaves and I did not spot it before.
Beautiful autumn we have this year, and although the golden leaves are falling now to the ground, they uncover woodpeckers!