Monday 10 September 2007

Three-toed Woodpecker: juvenile female ID

Juvenile female Three-toed Woodpeckers are very similar to juvenile males. The main difference is that females usually lack yellow on the fore-crown, but some however can show a touch of yellow here, which is lost later. When present this yellow is always significantly smaller and duller than on adult males, and smaller than on juvenile males. The photo here from Estonia (Mati Kose) probably shows an unfledged juvenile female. It is hard to tell. The small yellow patch on the forecrown suggests a female as a typical young male would have a more extensive yellow patch here.

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