Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers - males or juveniles (Stockholm) (1 Viewer)

[Macswede]

Every spring for 3 years we have had a female Lesser Spotted Woodpecker on our feeders. This year she arrived on 26th February.
On 18th April I visited the little cemetery across the road to see if I could find the woodpecker as I had seen previously seen her in the cemetery or in the trees outside.
I found her very quickly and then shortly afterwards, much to my surprise, I saw a male. This was something my wife and I had hoped for but we had almost given up.
2 days later we went on a birding trip to Skåne in the far south of Sweden and when we returned we were unable to find any Lesser Spotted Woodpecker in the area.
Yesterday, 1st August, I saw at least 2 Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers in the trees outside our bedroom window (possibly 3 but I only saw 2 at the same time). The all had red caps.
My question is whether they were males of juveniles.
I've attached pictures of 2 birds but I recollect one that was pale with an orange-red cap. Could have just been the light though. There was both sunshine and shade.

 

[Alexander Stöhr]

Hello,
both birds are juvenile males. Please compare: http://blascozumeta.com/wp-content/...iformes/294.lesserspottedwodpecker-dminor.pdf

A general rough rule for black and white woodpeckers is that juvenile birds have darker bellies, result of dirtish greyish ground-colour, merged with more streaks (true for Great and Middle and Lesser Spotted WP).
Your bird is a good=obvious example for this.

 

[creedence]

The ‘dirty face’ is also an indication of an immature

 

[Butty]

So does juvenile female have no red on the crown at all? Svensson f/guide shamefully (but characteristically) ignores the issue. (Yes, I could look it up somewhere else but haven't.)

 

[creedence]

Here’s your answer Butty (from the charming plates in Woodpeckers of Europe)

 

[Macswede]

Thank you very much indeed, Alexander and Creedence for these very helpful answers to my question. None of our field guides has a picture of a juvenile female and I couldn't find any reliable information online. This is the first successful breeding of Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers we've had locally since 2006.