Walking through the living room this week I noticed two hairy woodpeckers on the feeder. That’s unusual. We don’t get hairy woodpecers often, and when we do it’s always a single bird chowing down.

I stopped to watch, from across the room so as not to startle the. Sure enough, one of them was a youngster, eating away happily while dad was on the other side of the feeder…

…but happily accepting a special morsal from dad when he offeres it.

This time of year seeing parents cater to their teenage, soon to be adult, children is pretty common. They don’t seem to notice that their kids are eating just fine and on their own when they’re not being waited on.

I’m glad I happened to wander past their special time together when I did.

Note: I’m not sure if the kid is a boy or a girl. There’s no red spot on the back of it’s head which leads me to think it’s a girl…but there IS a spot just above the beak and I don’t know what that means. If you know, please comment below!
July 4, 2024 at 1:38 pm
cool pics!
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July 7, 2024 at 10:21 am
Thank you!
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July 4, 2024 at 2:13 pm
You know, there are humans who cater to their young adult children, too 😉
Lovely captures, Dawn.
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July 7, 2024 at 10:22 am
I’ve seen that.
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July 7, 2024 at 10:27 am
No doubt!
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July 4, 2024 at 5:45 pm
It is interesting, the Merlin Bird ID only identifies juvenile birds as juvenile – I don’t think it ever specifies male or female with the juvies that I can recall. Perhaps it is difficult to say until they are fully mature? Thanks for sharing the moment!
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July 7, 2024 at 10:23 am
My Michigan bird book mentions, in the Downy Woodpecker page, that some juviniles have a spot above their beaks…doesn’t say whether that’s a boy or girl juvie. And it doesn’t say that in the Hairy Woodpecker page…so maybe these were Downies…but they seemed bigger than Downies…so I don’t know…
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July 4, 2024 at 7:41 pm
Hi, Dawn!So glad that you were able to capture that special lunch date! You were in the right place! Thank you for sharing! Have a nice 4th of July! 🇺🇸
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July 7, 2024 at 10:23 am
I was lucky that I noticed them as I walked by. i think there is probably a lot more going on out there on the feeders then I notice.
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July 4, 2024 at 9:35 pm
Hi, Dawn – These are fabulous photo captures! Thank you for sharing them with us.
Happy 4th of July!
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July 7, 2024 at 10:24 am
You’re welcome! I hope you had a good holiday weekend!
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July 4, 2024 at 11:19 pm
How nice to see and photograph this Dawn. I saw a Northern Flicker feeding its youngster last week and the “baby” was as big as the parent!
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July 7, 2024 at 10:24 am
I’ve noticed that about all the birds that are being fed, they’re as big as the parents and quite capable of getting their own food.
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July 7, 2024 at 6:14 pm
The “kids” are milking it!
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July 5, 2024 at 10:19 pm
Oh my word, spectacular. Once in a lifetime.
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July 7, 2024 at 10:40 am
I’ve seen parent birds feeding young a couple times each spring. the ‘baby’ birds are almost always as big as the parent tirelessly feeding them.
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July 7, 2024 at 5:20 am
So sweet! I’ve been seeing a lot of small birds taking on large ones (and chipmunks!) lately. Must be defending their babies. They sure do take parenting seriously.
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July 7, 2024 at 10:41 am
They sure do. I once watched a turkey attack a sandhill crane that was trying to get to the turky babies.
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