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Texas: Woodpecker (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter Holger
- Start date
Nutcracker
Stop Brexit!
Very strange! Can only think an odd melanistic mutation Golden-fronted Woodpecker.
birdmeister
Well-known member
I could certainly go for that, and what a neat-looking bird!
BirdInTheTardis
Member
I agree. This is a really interesting observation!
What about the barring on the underside? If it was 'just' melanistic, it would have a plain black underside, surely?
Could this be from further south, an escapee or a hybrid?
Nutcracker
Stop Brexit!
Melanistic tips to the feathers? It's more that the barring you'd expect on the undertail coverts, extends up the whole breast. And then the face is clearly melanistic, but the crown and nape close to how they should be for a male G-fW. It'd be interesting to see what the rump is like (should be white), but it isn't visible in any of the pics.
I agree with your wish for better views of the rump. The G-fw is know to hybridise with Red-bellied, according to David Allen Sibley's 2nd ed Sibley Birds East. Do you know what they look like? Have there any cases of Golden-fronted hybridising with other species?
Nutcracker
Stop Brexit!
Presumably intermediate - which doesn't help here; this bird would be just as odd-looking if it were 200 km east in Red-bellied range and had Red-bellied crown pattern, rather than being in G-f range and having G-f crown pattern.
Whether G-f hybridises with other Melanerpes, maybe, but if it does, it'd be well down in Mexico that it does so.
