Every sunset, a Gila (pronounced HE-la) Woodpecker comes to visit my back yard hummingbird feeder. Most of the cacti are lacking fruit this time of year, and I think the large bird wants a quick high sugar sip before heading off to sleep for the night. The distinctive Gila Woodpecker "laugh" is not unlike Woody Woodpecker's, in a vague sense, and it's funny to watch a thumb sized male Anna's Hummingbird angrily try to dissuade the nearly I-Pad sized Woodpecker from hanging inverted upon and pecking away at the metallic flowers of the hummingbird feeder, to "slosh out" a few sweet drops of nectar. The attached photo was the closest I could get before the skittish woodpecker flew away from the clumsy ape with a near-infrared lighted camera standing at the patio door, excited to see this large bird.
Yeah... he's looking directly at me as the camera's distance finder is targeting him on full zoom, well aware of his surroundings, about 1/2 a second before he launched himself out and over the pool, and over the neighbor's house beyond.
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