A Woodpecker Tail

[Pops]

Was snapping away at woody and, when viewing the images later, I noticed for the first time how they make clever use of their tails to give extra support.
Can't think why I never spotted this before because looking back over other shots it features on quite a few of them.

The female here gives a good example of what I mean.

[Fistful of Sandeels]

the feathers in a woodpecker's tail are pretty stiff to enable them to use it as support when clinging on to a tree or in this case a feeder.

[stephen p]

so they do, clever ol' woody

nice shot aswell

[Lincs Yellowbelly]

Yes apparantly they have stiff tail feathers to support the weight, Treecreepers also do the same

[glsammy]

They also react differently to other birds when under threat. When I was at Centre Parcs last year, there were a number of Woodpeckers visiting the fat poll. Periodically a Sparrow Hawk would swoop through the feeding area. All the small birds flew off, but not the Woodpecker. It froze still, and didn't move until the other birds returned. Gave me a superb chance to get a decent shot of them!

[Pops]

Originally Posted by glsammy

They also react differently to other birds when under threat. When I was at Centre Parcs last year, there were a number of Woodpeckers visiting the fat poll. Periodically a Sparrow Hawk would swoop through the feeding area. All the small birds flew off, but not the Woodpecker. It froze still, and didn't move until the other birds returned. Gave me a superb chance to get a decent shot of them!

Thanks for that.
I have learnt something new every day in this forum.

[Brocker]

Well I'll be. . . You learn a new thing every day.

[STEinGUZZ]

I didn't know that they react differant either, I wonder if they know that they would probably be the target due to their high visible markings. I know most garden birds are very colourful, but does anyone think this might be the reason?