Ugliest bird in the world

A few weeks ago, we found a nest cavity for a woodpecker species. My supervisor has become very interested in woodpeckers over the last little while, so we investigated. Stephanie, Dan’s wife, has a fancy tool that we’ve called the “peeper”. It’s an infrared camera that you attach to a pole, and it has wires leading to a screen so you can see what’s the camera can see. She plans to use it for checking nests that are too tall to reach by hand. We decided to use the camera to peep in the nest cavity. Sure enough, a little woodpecker nestling was inside!

A few days after the initial peep, we decided we wanted to band it so that we can ID it later as the nestling we know of. Dan climbed up on a ladder and grabbed the nestling from the cavity. And OMIGOSH it was UGLY. It turns out the legs were too thick to put a legband on, so we just took a lot of photos. UGLY.

The photos, in order:

1) Adult pale-billed woodpecker at nest cavity

2) What the nestling looked like on the screen of the peeper – not very clear!

3) The nestling, showing what I’ve called the “ugly chicken skin”

4) The nestling, reaching out its neck as if it’s going to be fed by a parent

5) The nestling, with its head in the position its probably most used to – reach up for food from mom or dad!



PS: While connecting to the wireless internet to post this blog and check my email, I had to avoid sitting down on a tarantula. Just thought you'd like to know