Specialty birds in the Lower Rio Grande Valley, TX - Part 6 - Inca Dove and Golden-fronted Woodpecker

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INTRODUCTION

A continuation of a visual checklist of my efforts to capture images of birds that in the United States are seen primarily in the Lower Rio Grande Valley in Texas. The descriptions of the birds are terse.

The Inca Dove and Golden-fronted Woodpecker are featured in this post.

The combination of the Olympus OM-1 camera and the 150-400 mm f/4.5 TC lens was used to capture all the images displayed in this series.

Inca Dove - Quinta Mazatlan, TX
Focal length: 150 mm
1/320 sec @ f/6.3, ISO 2500
Handheld

Small, gray pigeon-like birds with long tails, Inca doves have a distinctive fish scale pattern on their breast, head and back feathers.

Inca Dove - NABA International Butterfly Park, TX
Focal length: 400 mm
1/1600 sec @ f/5.6, ISO 800
Handheld

Inca Dove - NABA International Butterfly Park, TX
Focal length: 158 mm
1/1600 sec @ f/5.6, ISO 800
Handheld

The chestnut wing patches become visible when they fly.

Inca doves are found from south-central Texas, Arizona and New Mexico south to Mexico and Costa Rica.

Golden-fronted Woodpecker - Estero Llano Grande State Park, TX
Focal length: 500 mm
1/1250 sec @ f/5.6, ISO 1600
Handheld

The Golden-fronted Woodpecker is a medium-sized woodpecker, plain buffy-brown overall with black-and-white barring on the back. It is a close relative of Red-bellied Woodpecker. Golden-fronted are distinguished in appearance by the golden color on their nape and above the bill.

Golden-fronted Woodpecker - Quinta Mazatlan, TX
Focal length: 500 mm
1/2500 sec @ f/5.6, ISO 2500
Handheld

Golden-fronted Woodpecker - NABA International Butterfly Park, TX
Focal length: 406 mm
1/5000 sec @ f/5.6, ISO 3200
Handheld

Golden-fronted Woodpecker - NABA International Butterfly Park, TX
Focal length: 395 mm
1/6400 sec @ f/5.6, ISO 3200
Handheld

The Golden-fronted Woodpecker occurs from southwestern Oklahoma through Texas and Mexico as far south as northern Nicaragua.

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David Sparks

I retired in 2005 after 40 years of research and teaching at the University of Alabama in Birmingham (24 years), the University of Pennsylvania (8 years) and the Baylor College of Medicine (8 years). Photography is my retirement hobby.

Nature photography, especially bird photography, combines a number of things that I really enjoy: bird-watching, being outdoors, photography, travel, messing about with computers, and learning new skills and concepts.  I now spend much of my time engaged in these activities.

David Sibley in the preface to The Sibley Guide to Birds wrote "Birds are beautiful, in spectacular as well as subtle ways; their colors, shapes, actions, and sounds are among the most aesthetically pleasing in nature."  My goal is to acquire images that capture the beauty and uniqueness of selected species as well as images that highlight the engaging behaviors the birds exhibit.