Sunday 9 September 2007

Grey-headed Woodpecker: juvenile ID

Juvenile male and female Grey-headed Woodpeckers are visibly separable. Juvenile male is similar to adult male, but the green areas of plumage are duller. There is some light grey-brown barring on flanks ans an overall rather scaly appearance. The rump is dark green rather than yellowish as on adults. Some wing coverts, tertials and secondaries are lightly barred and white spots on the primaries are larger than on adults. The black malar stripe is very thin and often hardly visible at all. The patch of red on the fore-crown is less extensive than on adult males, indeed sometimes it is just a smudge. Though hard to see, the iris colour tends to be darker, more reddish rather than pink as in adults. The bill is lighter, more yellow and the legs pale grey. Juvenile females are similar to juvenile males but lack red on fore-crown and thus they are very like adult females.

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