White-headed Woodpecker - Wenas, WA

One of my latest life list birds is this beautiful and unusual female White-headed woodpecker of the west coast pine forests. I tried once to find these small woodpeckers with no luck. I have heard it said that they follow along in mixed flocks with White breasted and Red-breasted nuthatches, Mountain and Black-capped chickadees. The play here was to drive down the forestry road with the windows down until I heard one of these flocks. About an hour into the drive the tell tail nuthatch and chickadee songs were coming from a patch of pines across a farmers field. Patience paid off and the flock slowly may it's way to the road. In fact a second flock showed up from the other direction and sure enough they both had a woodpecker each. The first had a male that came in very high in the trees, but I was very excited to catch a glimse. after 15 minutes he made his way to the base of a tree that was very close to the road. Little did I know it was to chatter at this female that was behind us. I followed them for another 20 minutes and they both flew in separate directions with their respective mixed flocks.