Date: 5/5/25 3:12 pm From: GLEN M CUMMINGS via CTBirds <ctbirds...> Subject: [CT Birds] Re: North Granby -- unusual plumage on a Hairy Woodpecker
John – years ago I saw exactly the same look on a Hairy on a Marsh Trail walk in North Haven and I later asked Jim Zip (from The Fat Robin), if I possibly saw a YB Sapsucker or Three-Toed WP. He chuckled and told me that most likely the sighting was a Hairy who had been feeding or living in a tree cavity that was coated inside with a yellowish fungi. He had also (along with others he knew) had observed that very same sighting. They then all referred to it as a “Dirty Hairy” syndrome.
That’s from the experts. Too funny
Glen Cummings
-----Original Message-----
From: John Weeks via CTBirds <ctbirds...>
Sent: Monday, May 5, 2025 9:42 AM
To: ctbirds <ctbirds...>
Subject: [CT Birds] North Granby -- unusual plumage on a Hairy Woodpecker
At one of our feeders just now, I saw an odd-looking male Hairy Woodpecker. Its entire underparts, the sides of its neck and to some extent even its supercilium — all areas that are normally snowy white — exhibited a yellowish wash almost as vivid as that of a sapsucker. I have seen dingy-looking Hairies out West and in Central America, but that was not what I saw here; the tint was definitely yellowish, not brownish or grayish.
Has anyone seen this before or read about it?
John Weeks
North Granby
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