Peckish

[The red coiffure seemed suitably festive for today. I do hope you have a wonderful holiday.]

One of the largest woodpeckers in the world lives in Patagonia: the Magellanic Woodpecker, Campephilus magellanicus. This is a handsome male: yes, there’s just one in this photo, though he apparently thinks he’s met a rival, living inside Hotel Lago Grey:

He gives him a sideways look:

Perhaps when he looks back his competition will have thought better of it. No such luck, still there:

So he decides that a war dance is the best strategy :

All this while his mate has been waiting patiently for her Don Quixote to give up tilting at windmills :

And her patience is rewarded. Visions of that glossy curly black quiff draw him back to her side:

They have no close relatives, but the closest may be the extinct ivory-billed woodpecker. The males can weigh up to 360g, a little larger than a Pileated Woodpecker.

Before I leave this post, Patagonia also has the rather drab Chilean Flicker, Colaptes pitius, a species of woodpecker that forages on the ground like its North American counterparts:

It is a male, because it has a dark mustache :