# Can you name my bird?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-name-my-bird/113729
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [June 12, 2002, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-name-my-bird/113729 "2002-06-12T21:37:10Z")
**Posts on this page:** 5
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@wolfman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfman)
#### Post date: [June 12, 2002, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-name-my-bird/113729/1 "2002-06-12T21:37:10Z")
There is a bird out in my yard(in Denver) that I don’t know I’ve ever scene before. There is this ant hill that has been anoying me for ever but I can’t get rid of it. But this bird is just going to town digging in to it and ripping to to shreads like he’s on crack, and I need to know what kind of bird it is, cause I want to know if there is a way to encourage him to stay around. He has a long pointed beak, and a grey head. His wings are a mostly brown with slight reddish tint. His body under the wings is white, and he has a dark black spot(inch diameter) on his chest. The whole body, except the head, has black spots in a fairly regular pattern.
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### Author:  [@Belrix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Belrix)
#### Post date: [June 12, 2002, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-name-my-bird/113729/2 "2002-06-12T22:31:23Z")
Is it my infamous [Norther Flicker](http://birds.cornell.edu/BOW/NORFLI/) made famous by this [thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=106367).
Incidentally, I did find a way to chase the bugger away - can you say “Super Soaker”? I knew you could…
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### Author:  [@wolfman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfman)
#### Post date: [June 12, 2002, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-name-my-bird/113729/3 "2002-06-12T23:03:21Z")
Yeah thats it i’m pretty sure. I figured it was probably some form of woodpecker since it was making like 4 strikes a second into the anthill. Mine was closest to the one at the bottom on
[http://birds.cornell.edu/birdhouse/speciesaccounts/NORTHERNFLICKER.htm](http://birds.cornell.edu/birdhouse/speciesaccounts/NORTHERNFLICKER.htm)
But without the red spot, and a longer looking neck,but the site says there are a lot of subspecies, so it was most likely one of those.
Well if it is a woodpecker then there is likely no way to get it to stay, cause all my trees are covered in squirrels. :(, oh well I was hoping to have a free bug control expert.
Thanks man.
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### Author:  [@barbitu8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/barbitu8)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2002, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-name-my-bird/113729/4 "2002-06-13T00:44:20Z")
It could be another woodpecker. Many species are similar. Compare [here](http://enature.com/search/show_search_thumb.asp?curGroupID=1&searchText=woodpecker) Perhaps the ladder-back?
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### Author:  [@sward](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sward)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2002, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-name-my-bird/113729/5 "2002-06-13T01:07:00Z")
Not knowing its gender, I’ll name it Pat.