Thursday, June 16, 2011

Red-breasted Sapsucker

Last Saturday my wife joined me for a walk through Mount Talbert Nature Park. It was my first visit and while it was a beautiful park, there weren't a lot of birds in view. We heard several, but like many densely wooded parks, the birds have many places to hide.
At one point along one of the many trails there was a clearing. It was there that I saw only my second sighting of a Red-breasted Sapsucker. I found its behavior interesting as, not only did it fly aggressively from tree to tree, but it also would hover in the air occasionally. Not behavior I would expect from a woodpecker. Also, when I zoomed in on the images I realized that it was actually catching insects as it had a couple in its bill. Checking on All About Birds, it states "Forages for insects by gleaning, probing, prying, tapping, and flycatching." So, I guess the behavior was not unusual after all.

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