Golden-fronted Woodpecker
Melanerpes aurifrons
Medium-sized woodpecker, plain buffy-brown overall with black-and-white barring on the back. Head pattern varies across range but usually shows some combination of yellow and red. Most males on the Caribbean slope of Mexico and into Central America have a solidly red crown and nape. In flight, look for white rump. Common and conspicuous in open woodlands, deciduous forest, and arid scrub from Texas and Oklahoma south to Nicaragua. Often the default woodpecker close to human settlements. Visits backyards and feeders, especially for oranges and jelly. Hybridizes with Red-bellied Woodpecker at the northern limits of its range and with Hoffmann’s Woodpecker at the southern limits. Also compare with the smaller Yucatan Woodpecker.
Taxonomy
- Scientific name
- Melanerpes aurifrons
- Order
- Piciformes
- Family
- Picidae
- Genus
- Melanerpes
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
Other Birds
Least Storm-Petrel
Hydrobates microsoma
Very small, all-dark storm-petrel with a fairly short, graduated tail. Fairly common and can be seen from shore in the Gulf of California and along the Pacific coast. Often feeds and associates with the much larger Black Storm-Petrel, where size difference is obvious. Flight of Least is generally quick and weaving, with deep, rather jerky wingbeats and little or no gliding.
Black-eared Sparrow-Lark
Eremopterix australis
A small, compact finch-like sociable lark that is nomadic, and often irrupts in large numbers after good rains. The sexes differ in plumage: the distinctive male is mostly black, including under the wings, with chestnut-sprinkled upperparts; the female is reddish-brown above and streaked underneath. Small to medium-sized flocks (often mixed with Gray-backed Sparrow-Lark) can appear in grassy shrubland in the Karoo and Kalahari, where dark males are conspicuous when they fly up on broad wings and flap slowly in the fashion of a butterfly. They drop to the ground and land on bare patches, where they shuffle along foraging for seeds and insects. The female Black-eared Sparrow-Lark is told apart from other female sparrow-larks by its all-dark underwings in flight and the lack of a black belly patch.
Rufous-breasted Warbling Finch
Poospiza rubecula
Rare and endangered bird found at high elevations in the western Andes of northern and central Peru. Note the black mask and the reddish-orange eyebrows, throat, and breast. Similar to Rufous-browed Hemispingus of the eastern Andes, but eyebrows are shorter and connect over the bill. Young birds mostly lack the mask and eyebrow and are heavily streaked below. Inhabits scrub and stunted woodland.
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