Help me ID a bird!

December 5, 2012 5:27 AM

Can anyone identify this bird found in North Carolina?

This bird was lying dead on the sidewalk when I came to work this morning, and I am having no luck identifying it. Does anyone know what it is? This is in NC.

posted by feathermeat to science & nature (10 answers total)

It looks like a young Pileated Woodpecker.
posted by PlantGoddess at 5:35 AM on December 5, 2012

I was going to say Pileated Woodpecker too. Usually the top of the head is red though.
posted by moosedogtoo at 5:36 AM on December 5, 2012

Hooded merganser.
posted by elsietheeel at 5:42 AM on December 5, 2012 [2 favorites]

with no scale, and without seeing the underside, or the feet, or the actual shape of the bill, the crest looks like a hooded merganser.

Even immature Pileated Woodpeckers have red on the head.
posted by HuronBob at 5:44 AM on December 5, 2012

Agree that it looks like a hooded merganser. In addition to the difference in crest, a woodpecker would have a different kind of bill.

It was just lying on the sidewalk? Odd.
posted by rtha at 5:48 AM on December 5, 2012

were there tall buildings nearby.. perhaps it flew into a window.
posted by HuronBob at 5:50 AM on December 5, 2012 [1 favorite]

Here are another few pictures. I think hooded morganser may be right on. This was right in front of a relatively tall building.
posted by feathermeat at 5:57 AM on December 5, 2012

My trusty Peterson's leads me to agree that it's a Hooded Merganser. Definitely done-in by the building.
posted by Thorzdad at 7:25 AM on December 5, 2012

Eponysterical.

Yeah, Merganser and windows can be death traps for birds.
posted by Punctual at 7:46 AM on December 5, 2012 [1 favorite]

Definitely a Hooded Merganser. You can kind of make out his webbed feet in one of the pictures. Poor guy.
posted by hydrobatidae at 8:15 AM on December 5, 2012 [1 favorite]