These 2 photographs are of different juvenile Great - Spotted Woodpeckers. Juveniles can be told by red feathers on their forehead, interestingly this red is absent in adults. You can identify 4 different colour forms of Great - spotted Woodpecker because t's possible to separate juvenile males and juvenile females. The bird above is a female, it has comparatively few red feathers on the head and is a different individual than the one pictured below which is a male. You can clearly see much more red on the head on this bird. I have been interested in birds since a child and it's only this year that I have discovered this difference. Weirdly, I find this very interesting!! By next spring all this year's juveniles will have lost their red heads and young males will develop red on the nape but the females will remain plain black and white. I am interested to see for myself when this moulting process will start to occur.
Also, interestingly from a photographers point of view, both birds were photographed in the same place and the direction of the light has totally changed the background. You can take the same photograph 1000 times and each one would be different.
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