Why is this called the red-bellied woodpecker? Anyway they are striking, and one has visited us a few times recently. [retraction: it continues to visit us, and I have noticed the red tinge of its lower underbelly. to whomever named this bird - sorry I doubted you!]
On my bucket list is to see an ivory billed woodpecker. I have my Granddaddy Richard's painting of one, and he often commented about how they thought it was extinct, then found it in the backwoods of Arkansas. He was a life-long Republican, but also a big fan of the Sierra Club and other tree-hugger groups.
We've had a frequent visitor that I misidentified at first as a carolina chickadee (of which we have a few regulars; so cute); its a white-breasted nut-hatch, a male I think, but not quite this blueish. He doesn't seem too afraid of me, and will let me stand about four feet away. The chickadees are pretty tolerant as well. Closer than that and he makes a funny little squawk and flies away. He prefers the sunflower seeds, and will work hard to release the other seeds until a sunflower seed falls out.
The blue-jays are too big to perch on the feeder, but they often come around when the sparrows are feeding in groups. The sparrows dance around and spill seeds everywhere, and the jays and doves and squirrels can help themselves.
One of my most exciting bird sightings was a few weeks ago, walking up my brother's front walk - a little bird flew from upper right to lower left in my field of vision, darting deep into a bush and a small hawk, right on its tail, pulled up and swerved left at the last minute. I was like, whoa, what just happened. It was a small hawk, maybe a sharp shinned hawk? (which is said to be usually smaller than a crow)
Or maybe a cooper's hawk? I think I've seen some coopers hawks around richmond hill. Hawks frequent the trees and ride the up-drafts on the edge of the hill. I'm hoping I can learn identify them better. Speaking of the up-draft, it makes cleaning the south side gutters of the dormitory a pain. I toss the leaves over the edge and half of them blow back up onto the roof!
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