Here are a few more Arizona bird findings for this #featheredfriday by @melinda010100
At first glance I thought this was a female cardinal. But then I realized it was a pyrrhuloxia after seeing its weird shaped beak and color pattern.
Their common name is desert cardinal. They are quite common in the winter and spring in Southern Arizona. I often see them hanging out with regular cardinals as well.
The white crowned sparrows show up for winter too. This is a male watching over females on the ground.
The females are taking advantage of some free water sprinklers for a pine tree. In the desert if you want to attract birds and other wildlife just have some water running and they will show up.
Here's another tiny bird called a verdin. You can barely see a bit of its red feather right under its eye on the wing. I was hoping to get a better shot but these guys are tiny and fast.
Now it stood still for an unflattering shot as usual lol. Tiny birds are tricky subjects.
This male house finch sort of resembles a Christmas ornament on the green mesquite trees. I tried getting closer but it flew off.
At first glance I thought this was a Gila Woodpecker.
Then I got a shot of its back and noticed the horizontal striped feather pattern.
This is a Ladder-Backed Woodpecker. The back feather pattern and red head pattern are the ways to differentiate this woodpecker from a downy or a Gila Woodpecker. They have a range that barely touches Southern Arizona so this is somewhat of a rare find around here.
That's all for now, thanks for looking :-)