South African Gardening Blog | Woody woodpecker

Woody woodpecker

I noticed this striking bird the other day (another member of the menagerie in my new garden) and after watching it for a while saw that it kept going back to a fig tree next to the house. On closer inspection, it turns out that there is a perfectly round hole in the trunk and a nest, complete with youngster, inside.

Is this a woodpecker? Its the only bird I know that makes a nest in a tree trunk.

Woody woodpecker

Mom, I'm hungry!

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7 Comments to “Woody woodpecker”

mol-d 27 February 2010 at 10:23 am #

cool pics, smile! i didn’t think we got woodpeckers in south africa but looks like we get loads:

http://www.biodiversityexplorer.org/birds/picidae/

can’t see your guy on there though…
emme 27 February 2010 at 11:19 am #

we quite often have woodpeckers in our garden (a slowly rotting avo tree means lots of, um, grub -haha) but none of them look like this. their beak is usually must more daggar like that it appear in these photo’s. your guy looks to me like a golden rumped tinker barbet.
mol-d 1 March 2010 at 12:10 pm #

good joke, em! is this confirmed then? a golden-rumped tinker barbet…? what a name!
Smile 1 March 2010 at 12:37 pm #

Confirmed by Rose on the Buzz

Rosemary Lombard – Hi Smile, have looked in my parents’ bird books and it appears you have a Goldenrumped Tinker Barbet infestation. So cool!
emme 3 March 2010 at 12:53 pm #

me so clever!
bryan 7 March 2010 at 8:11 am #

Yes, well done you avid twitchers! It is indeed the very rare and elusive golden humped tinker barbet. I have never seen this bird before. Hundreds of the species, but not this one.

Good spot , good photos, pretty bird!
shaggy 7 March 2010 at 9:34 pm #

The initial hole was probably made by a woodpecker though. The Barbet has taken advantage of a good nest. I don’t think that the Barbets beak can withstand the pecking to make this kind of nest.

Nice pics Niall