Couldn’t get a picture, and pretty sure its some kind of PeckerWood. Here is what I can report:
Small crest on his head, but sharply pointed back. Black Triangle on his chest, bordered in white, very distinctive. Short-ish tail feathers. The most prominate feature was the underside of the wings were red, or orange. Otherwise, kinda grey. His head maybe had some red as well. Maybe had a wing-span of 18 inches. Very quick, agile.
I used to have a book on how to identify different bird dudes, but it’s gone away like the winds of time. I suspect somekind of woodpecker 'cause someone trying to get into the house, by pecking wood. Who is this devil?
Gonna say no on this guy. He had a proundounced crest, if small, on the top of his head. And that black triangle was like a tattoo. Equilateral and sharp. With a white border, equally as sharp.
Oh, this was spotted on the back side of the Sierra, about Reno-ish.
Hmmm…greyish + red underside of wings is pretty distinctive. Not many other woodpeckers really fit that in the Eastern Sierras that also have a black chest triangle and a crest. I might be inclined to say none . Lewis Woodpeckers have a weird pinkish-red wash, but don’t fit in any other way.
One of the sapsuckers in odd light, perhaps? They’re basically black and white (female Williamson’s is grayish with an amorphous black patch, but not red undersides to wings), with varying amounts of red and the occasional pale yellow washes. Some can have white-bordered black triangles on their chest, sometimes. They show small crests, sometimes. The problems with sapsuckers is the little bastards are both a little variable as individuals and will also occasionally hybridize.
Here’s the list of woodpeckers of NA with pics. Of those the Flicker, the Pileated, the White-headed, the Hairy, the Downy, the Black-backed, the Acorn, the Red-naped and Red-breasted Sapsuckers, and maybe the Williamson’s Sapsucker might be potentially found West of Reno.
I actually checked both those sites before posting. Can’t find this rascal on either site! I seem to think he had the spots when his wings were against his body, but those red underside wings were like flashes of red lightning. Unmistakable. Really a magnificent critter. I’m pretty sure I’ve seen a pair of them in the last couple months. But today, I got a real good look at one of them. I was just sitting in the car, listening to the radio. Bopping around the trees, them swooping around the numerous quail in the yard. Don’t know what that was about. Not a hawk. I know that guy.
But if he keeps poking my house, there is gonna be trouble.
If you have an iPhone and can get a decent photo of it, it can try to ID the thing for you. I’m certain an app that does the same thing exists for Android as well.
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