Unusual woodpecker

[jmack]

This woodpecker in my garden had one brown wing and one black wing. Is this a young woodpecker or moulting or something else?

[artdemole]

I would say a Juvinile woodpecker.Greater Spotted Woodpecker...

[Ferret]

Its an adult female Great Spotted Woodpecker, young birds have a red crown and males a red nape, no idea why on wing is brown something like stress or injury probably interfered with the production of colour when the feathers where growing would be my guess.

Ferret

[Dogghound]

Looks leucistic to me. Woodpecker feathers tend to fade when old, but this looks a little more extreme and can be seen into the nape and crown aswell as the mantle and wing.

[Wild-Woman]

Originally Posted by Dogghound

Looks leucistic to me.

My thought too.

[dunkeld]

Last winter I regularly saw a GSP female which was mostly brown on it's back from head to tail. This was at the SWT site at Dunkeld where I volunteer. The bird was seen almost daily up until nesting time then nothing for weeks.Wewere seeing quite a few GSW but were not really coming to the feeding station,however, they very quickly got to know when the peanut butter was on offer at the hole in the tree ! The brown and black female now pops in regularly again ,but, if there is an "end of summer moult " that explains why she has lost about half of the brown feather from her back. She is not quite as shy as the rest of the woodpeckers and occasionaly comes quite close to the viewing window.