A Woodpecker on peanuts in the UK is more likely a Great Spotted Woodpecker,young birds will be around now which can be confusing for us all. The species you mention are not on the uk list,it may be worth looking on the id sites of RSPB and BTO.
Intriguing ... could they possibly be escapes from private collection?
I thought of that Wendy but I personally have not come accross 'peckers in a private collection but no doubt they are out there somewhere. There is the Black Woodpecker over the channel but not sure if there is any uk records.
What's that famous saying S? ... 'There's a first time for everything!'
Thankyou for getting in touch about the black and brown woodpeckers. Our own spotted woodpecker is still around, and this makes me even surer that I did not imagine the black and the brown woodpeckers. From not even knowing there are woodpeckers in South America !!!!, to finding the black and the brown woodpeckers we have seen appear to "coincidently" come from the same area, appears somewhat interesting to say the least. My husband wondered about the birds escaping from somewhere around here. But although I know birds are "trafficked" around the world, why would anyone take these birds from their native habitat to keep here?!! I know the answers to that question, but can't understand why people do these things.
WendyBartter said: What's that famous saying S? ... 'There's a first time for everything!'
I too live in Wales, in Carmarthenshire. We have regular woodpeckers feeding on our peanuts, often a whole family. This year, in the last few weeks, a woodpecker has appeared and where he/she should be nicely white plumed on his/her chest - it's brown. Like the bird has fallen in a vat of curry (but only her chest). What is going on? It's hard to get a picture because of the topography of my garden but trust me I know what a greater spotted woodpecker looks like. I can stare easily at him through the kitchen window but don't think my camera is good enough to capture a picture. I note the original query is from someone in Wales too. What is going on? Thanks in advance.
I'm also in Carmarthenshire (nr Llanybydder) i know this is an old thread, but it's very interesting as we've had a female GSW coming to the feeders all winter who appears erythristic. Her darker markings are still visible, but the general impression is of her being a dirty brown all over. (Def. a GSW - it's a part of my job to know my birds....) Very strong contrast to the current juv. male who is the normal pristine colour combination - Just wondered if we might have an odd genetic grouping around here?
Thankyou for getting in touch. I will be very honest with you, I was a bit ridiculed by bird watchers at a national organisation, and consequently stopped doing counts and observations etc. However, someone on the RSPB chats at the time (I never mentioned that I lost confidence, and I think it might be the thread you have read that I wrote at the time), anyway this particular person said it was unusual, but just to enjoy the birds, and continue along. This I have done, and don't do observations or counts anymore. But do love all our birds here. WE DO have the spotted woodpecker, who is very different to the two birds I saw, nuthatches, tree creeper, bull finch, and all our favourites as well. We do live on the edge of Rhaeadr Gwy, but have a wildlife garden, so we are noticing different birds which have never been here over the last few years, and don't know if the garden contributes to that. At the time I saw the other woodpeckers by the way, my husband saw them too, and when he looked them up, both arriving on different days, the South American description came in to play on both occasions. We have no real experience, and when we looked at the descriptions a few days apart, both came back to South America. Anyway, we shall continue as we are going, and we are just enjoying all our wonderful birds very much.