Eric Gofreed
Well-Known Member
It’s Winged Wednesday, where feathers, flutters, and flight steal the show! Whether they’re zipping, swooping, sunbathing, or just striking a sassy pose, we want to see your favorite winged wonders. Birds, bugs, bats, or butterflies—if it’s got wings, it’s fair game.
Today, I’m contributing photos of five woodpeckers found in my state of Arizona. So pull up a perch and enjoy the peck parade!
And don’t forget to share your winged creature or thing—whatever’s fluttering through your world.
Next week is open, but I’ll be posting Woodpeckers with Color. Thanks for visiting, and thanks for playing Winged Wednesday!
The Gila Woodpecker is a desert specialist who treats saguaro cacti like real estate. She drills the cactus, raises her young inside, and pretends not to hear the Gilded Flicker knocking on the other side. It’s less a cactus and more a high-rise with competing tenants and no elevator.
The Gilded Flicker also nests in saguaros but prefers to dig a little higher up, possibly for the view or to avoid the Gila downstairs. With its golden wings and fondness for cactus condos, it’s the desert’s idea of a glamorous tenant—loud, persistent, and oddly fond of insects no one else wants to eat. This one is perched on a Saguaro.
This Acorn Woodpecker was photographed in Costa Rica, where they’re practically tropical comedians with wings. But you don’t have to go that far to see one—they also live in southeastern Arizona, though only in places that look suspiciously not like desert. These birds are canyon specialists, relying on oak trees to store their acorns in elaborate granaries. In the Southwest, they’re mostly found in the so-called “Sky Islands”—isolated mountain ranges that rise like cool, green oases from the surrounding desert. The birds don’t mind the heat below, as long as there’s an oak-filled canyon above, a good view, and a tree they can turn into a pantry.
The Ladder-backed Woodpecker looks like someone tried to barcode a bird and gave up halfway. It's a desert dweller with a taste for yuccas, mesquites, and any tree that hasn’t already collapsed from heat or neglect. Smaller than you'd expect and busier than it needs to be, it works its way up branches like it’s late for something.
The Arizona Woodpecker is the only brown-plumaged woodpecker in North America. Its range just sneaks into southeastern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico, with most of the population living south of the border.
Couplets:
They hammer for food with a tap and a thrum,
But drum just for fun—or to summon someone.
When woodpeckers drum, it’s not just for snacks
It’s flirting, it’s fighting, and marking their tracts.
Once upon a time I was out hiking, birding, and traveling like a caffeinated heron.
These days my hips and knees have filed for retirement, so I’ve refocused.
I’m still chasing birds and wild things, only now I chase them in stories:
a mix of candid half‑truths, fables, and the occasional wildly exaggerated adventure. Add in a mix of
parables spun from the everyday life of an old man with a pen and a camera.
If that sounds like your kind of fun, I’ve just started a free weekly blog.
Links don’t work here, copy and paste thegofreedchronicles.substack.com into your browser, and you’ll find me.
I’d love to have you along!
Today, I’m contributing photos of five woodpeckers found in my state of Arizona. So pull up a perch and enjoy the peck parade!
And don’t forget to share your winged creature or thing—whatever’s fluttering through your world.
Next week is open, but I’ll be posting Woodpeckers with Color. Thanks for visiting, and thanks for playing Winged Wednesday!
The Gila Woodpecker is a desert specialist who treats saguaro cacti like real estate. She drills the cactus, raises her young inside, and pretends not to hear the Gilded Flicker knocking on the other side. It’s less a cactus and more a high-rise with competing tenants and no elevator.
The Gilded Flicker also nests in saguaros but prefers to dig a little higher up, possibly for the view or to avoid the Gila downstairs. With its golden wings and fondness for cactus condos, it’s the desert’s idea of a glamorous tenant—loud, persistent, and oddly fond of insects no one else wants to eat. This one is perched on a Saguaro.
This Acorn Woodpecker was photographed in Costa Rica, where they’re practically tropical comedians with wings. But you don’t have to go that far to see one—they also live in southeastern Arizona, though only in places that look suspiciously not like desert. These birds are canyon specialists, relying on oak trees to store their acorns in elaborate granaries. In the Southwest, they’re mostly found in the so-called “Sky Islands”—isolated mountain ranges that rise like cool, green oases from the surrounding desert. The birds don’t mind the heat below, as long as there’s an oak-filled canyon above, a good view, and a tree they can turn into a pantry.
The Ladder-backed Woodpecker looks like someone tried to barcode a bird and gave up halfway. It's a desert dweller with a taste for yuccas, mesquites, and any tree that hasn’t already collapsed from heat or neglect. Smaller than you'd expect and busier than it needs to be, it works its way up branches like it’s late for something.
The Arizona Woodpecker is the only brown-plumaged woodpecker in North America. Its range just sneaks into southeastern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico, with most of the population living south of the border.
Couplets:
They hammer for food with a tap and a thrum,
But drum just for fun—or to summon someone.
When woodpeckers drum, it’s not just for snacks
It’s flirting, it’s fighting, and marking their tracts.
Once upon a time I was out hiking, birding, and traveling like a caffeinated heron.
These days my hips and knees have filed for retirement, so I’ve refocused.
I’m still chasing birds and wild things, only now I chase them in stories:
a mix of candid half‑truths, fables, and the occasional wildly exaggerated adventure. Add in a mix of
parables spun from the everyday life of an old man with a pen and a camera.
If that sounds like your kind of fun, I’ve just started a free weekly blog.
Links don’t work here, copy and paste thegofreedchronicles.substack.com into your browser, and you’ll find me.
I’d love to have you along!
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