A Belted Kingfisher (Megaceryle alcyon) and a Red-headed Woodpecker (Melanerpes erythrocephalus) seemed to be eyeing each other with intense curiosity this past Friday at Huntley Meadows Park when they both chose to occupy the same tree at the same time.
Redheads have a mysterious attraction, it seems, in the bird world as well as in the human world.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
That’s a real great “capturing the moment” photo! How delightful!
Thanks, Liz. I love see interactions between species, though I must confess that I usually impute human motives on the creatures involved.
Amazing photo! How lucky you were to see this!
Thanks. I was amazed to see this incident and definitely lucky to see it happen.
Wow, what a super shot Mike! Well done!
Thanks, Camilla. I was initially focused on the kingfisher when I saw the woodpecker start to creep into the frame. I was fortunate they were both in the same tree so that I could get them both more or less in focus.
Wow! Cool shot!
Thanks, Anne. It was really cool to witness it in person and to capture the interaction in a photo that I could share.
Great behaviour shot, Mike!
Thanks, Chris. This was an unusual case when I zoomed out to include more of the scene instead of zooming in as I almost always do. I am always fascinated by the interactions between species, although it’s not always easy to correctly understand what is going on when they do interact.
Nice shot! Kingfishers are hard birds to get good shots of in my area.
Thanks, Allen. They generally are tough for me too, but today’s posting includes some shots from a lucky occasion this past weekend when a kingfisher was more cooperative than normal.
What an unusual shot! I don’t think I’ve seen many images of 2 birds of different species (other than at feeders), and these two really do seem to be eyeing each other.
[…] Curiosity | October 23, 2017 […]