Black Woodpecker?

Rutlander · #1 (**permalink**) 27-09-2011, 03:22 PM

Can anyone suggest which bird I saw recently? It was the same size and shape as a green woodpecker, with the same flight pattern but had a jet black body and a grey or brown head?

Billabong Karen · #2 (**permalink**) 27-09-2011, 03:29 PM

I've seen them in Germany, but never in the UK... They have quite startling yellow eyes and a very distinctive call.

Billabong Karen · #3 (**permalink**) 27-09-2011, 03:30 PM

Sorry, meant to say - it certainly sounds like a black woodpecker, though I understand it is quite easy to mistake a green woodpecker for them if the light is not great. The ones I saw in Germany were very distinctive, though.

Johnny81 · #4 (**permalink**) 27-09-2011, 03:32 PM

A Jay in bad light?

Rutlander · #5 (**permalink**) 27-09-2011, 03:49 PM

Thanks guys. It possibly had the colouring of a jackdaw but flew like (and had the body shape of) a green woodpecker. It certainly wasn't a jay. BTW - The light was great.

aeshna5 · #6 (**permalink**) 27-09-2011, 04:22 PM

Black Woodpecker has never been officially accepted as occurring in the UK + though claims have been made over the years these have always been rejected by the Rare bird men.

Chances are it wasn't one- they are large- crow sized, so significantly larger than a Green Woodpecker.

Rutlander · #7 (**permalink**) 27-09-2011, 04:35 PM

Thanks - If I see it again, I'll try to get a better description. If anyone is passing through Rutland and wants to check it out, I saw it on the Stamford Rd in Oakham.

RoyW · #8 (**permalink**) 27-09-2011, 04:42 PM

If you think that you may have seen a black woodpecker rather that a Black Woodpecker (note the advantage of using capitals to show a specific species is being named

), then that could be the case.
Melanistic Green Woodpeckers are recorded from time to time, and I don't see any reason why one couldn't appear greyish on the neck/cheek area (generally the palest part of any Green Woodpecker) - and possibly even 'brownish' on the head if the red crown was partial apparent.

Several parts of your description rule out Black Woodpecker (eg. the size and flight behaviour - Black Woodpeckers do have the same flight pattern as most other woodpeckers).

Presumably you are certain that it wasn't a Jackdaw (which is a Green Woodpecker sized bird with the plumage of a Jackdaw).

~T~ · #9 (**permalink**) 27-09-2011, 05:57 PM

I saw a similar bird during late summer which people here thought could have been a spotted nutcracker. Have a look and see if that looks anything like it. It was it's resemblance to a woodpecker that struck me most though was mostly black with some white and a grey/brown head.

Rutlander · #10 (**permalink**) 27-09-2011, 07:38 PM

Maybe I should have suggested it was a woodpecker that was black? Anyway, as a layman (ie non-birder) I've probably missed an opportunity, however small, to increase my spotting skills. I don't think it was a Spotted Nutcracker. Sorry for any false alarm but I will make the effort to cycle that way again and hope to get a second sighting.