The small black patch at the base of the upper mandible says GSW
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they do. but, even if we wouldn't see the cheek stripe in this image (which i doubt), GSW is much rarer inside the city of bucharest than syrian. and this looks like a female syrian, for the reasons mentioned above.
The black by the bill is just darkness looking up its nostril. The feathering at the base of the top of the bill is orangey-brown - probably staining from wood chips in its nest hole, but if genuine colour, that might make the hybrid option more realistic.
I've blown up the pic to x2 size and brightened slightly - looks to me even more like staining now, with quite a bit of staining on the rest of the feathers too. Definitely not black feathers above the bill.It looks distinct from the nostril which is clearly, separately visible, I don't think it's just shadow.
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I've blown up the pic to x2 size and brightened slightly - looks to me even more like staining now, with quite a bit of staining on the rest of the feathers too. Definitely not black feathers above the bill.
Black streaks on the lower flanks also favour Syrian.
Yep, it's feathering above the bill, but it's not black!Stlll looks like feathering to me and the 'black streaks' look like gaps in the feathering to me, flank streaking should be much finer than this?
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I've blown up the pic to x2 size and brightened slightly.
The original photo is a crop from https://theurbanbirderworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Bucharest-Syrian-Woodpecker-D-Eades.jpg (at https://theurbanbirderworld.com/bucharest-birding/).