141 : White-naped Woodpecker

White-naped Woodpecker; Chrysocolpates festivus

I was walking through what looked a bit like a village green in Karnataka with Dillon the bird guide (and award winning photographer and wildlife documentary cameraman) when quite a substantial woodpecker flew up onto a nearby tree. A pair of locals (men in this case) were having an extremely loud a conversation nearby and I was convinced that the bird that had set about grubbing in a hole in an old tree would fly off. "An argument ?"  I asked Dillon. "'No - always like this they speak'' was the response with the kind of Yodaesque  construction which should be mandatory when you you are at one with nature with a bird guide. Now he didn't say this but I'll add a whispered "White-naped he is, widespread yet scarcely found".

Widespread and scarce is the phrase in a bird book that lets you know that you have a chance of seeing a bird almost anywhere geographically within a country but that you'll be lucky. A Hawfinch is widespread yet scarce. So you are doing well - a solid birders bird that should brighten up a list. On this occasion we were lucky as the argument that wasn't - simply a mornings banter about the price of goat's milk - had developed into full blown shouting with finger wagging. This just off to stage right.  Still I held my breath and crept foward taking shots as I went and watching the bird grubbing away.

Some things to note from this excelent shot while we are all in "Spring-watch'' mode in the UK with Chris Packham. Well today's science on the Daily Bird is the term zygodactyl or “yoked" feet. Two toes on the bird point forward, and two backward. The normal arrangement might be three foward and one back like a heel. This cruciate pattern gives the bird equal grip at all angles and must have given the first woodpecker whose toe wandered an advantage in foraging. You can see as we have noted before on both woodpeckers and barbets that the stiff tail is used a prop - almost a third leg. The bird hangs back and the weight transfers down the tail and takes some of the work away from the clawed feet. A bit like your own foot if you have two hands gripping whil rock climbing and you are reaching for another foothold.

The bird  was spooked by my coming too close in the end - the locals remained indifferent to his presence. This bid was more the size of small crow than the woodpecker most of us would know in the UK - the Greater Spotted. This is the same family of woodpeckers largely that the fabled Ivory Billed is a member of. We will have to have a page on the Ivory billed at some stage - the Loch Ness Monster of birds. A bird either so rare or so extinct that it drives a whole industry of books, expeditions, lectures, counter-claims by scientists and general US led froth. That's all for another day. I like scarce - like a White-naped woodpecker. Virtually or definately extinct is not the kind of odds we are looking for on the Daily Bird. I am not going to be the first man in 60 years to photograph an Ivory Billed - I am however pleased to have photgraghed a White-naped given that I was in the field for 22 hours in total over the course of 2 days.

White-naped Woodpecker, Chrosocolaptes festivus
Hornbill Village - next to men who were not arguing very very loudly - Karnataka, India
25 May 2012