Some of my neighbors

[Talitha]

Sorry the pics are soft-looking, I took them through a screen from the upstairs window.

The Mama Turkey was taking her family for a morning walk... aren't they adorable little bundles of fuzz? There's a total of 8 Chicks, one of them is under Mama's tail... see it? They spent a leisurely 10 minutes walking around the house before going back into the woods.



The Pileated Woodpecker required a good amount of the zoom on my little digital camera... they're magnificent and can chop away like a lumberjack!
Cute memory: my younger Son was 10 when he saw his first Pileated, and wanted me to go outside and "help that Crow, Mama, his head's all bloody - he's hanging onto the side of that tree." I told him it was Woody Woodpecker and got the binoculars so he could get a better look.

[dweller]

1. have you heard the pileated's call

you'll never forget it... had several where i used to live, the 1st time i wondered wth is that??
eventually caught sight of it (2 actually) after hearing the calls again and exploring for the origin ... beautiful large birds
https://m.

✌🏼

[Talitha]

2. Yes, and they're loud!!

The young ones take a while to get the full volume up, though. There were two young ones hanging around the house a few years ago - might have been siblings. Lots of fun to watch, and they weren't afraid of the outside activity at all. I could hear them keeping tabs with one another all day.

When my kids were in high school a Pileated would perch atop a high light pole in the middle of the parking lot when the busses started lining up after school. It loved all the commotion of the kids, the busses, the cars and would give out a call every so often... again, not afraid at all.

[Karadeniz]

3. I don't care if you took the photos through a screen...love seeing your neighbors making

Themselves at home!❤

[3Hotdogs]

4. I always thought the Pileated was the inspiration for Woody Woodpecker.

Actually, it was the Acorn Woodpecker.

[Talitha]

5. I learn something new every day here in DU.. thanks!

@ Dweller: BTW, thanks for posting the Pileated video.... you should have seen my Dog's ears perk up when I played it.

@ Karadeniz: Thanks! I grew up in a VERY large city and have also lived in a suburb and a small town. By far, the animals in my forest are the best neighbors ever.

@ 3Hotdogs: Woody's crest led me to believe he was a Pileated and TBH this is the first time I've ever heard of an Acorn Woodpecker - understandable though, because we don't have any here in the northern Great Lakes region.

So I did a bit of research and it seems that we're both right. The character itself was made to look like a Pileated, but Woody's laugh was indeed inspired by the Acorn Woodpecker.
From Wikipedia: "Walter Lantz is believed to have patterned the call of his cartoon character Woody Woodpecker on that of the acorn woodpecker, while patterning his appearance on that of the pileated woodpecker, which has a prominent crest."

A web search turned up this site with various vocalizations of the Acorn Woodpecker. Check out the 3rd one - I could hear a distinct resemblance between it and Woody's laugh.