[New post] Juvie Hairy Woodpecker and eyelid trivia
Sukanya Ramanujan posted: " Juvenile Male Hairy Woodpecker Hairy Woodpecker Nictitating Membrane- Third Eyelid I don't know about other people but I find woodpeckers incredibly hard to photograph. They almost always refuse to stay still and will perversely always perch on " Sukanya Ramanujan
I don't know about other people but I find woodpeckers incredibly hard to photograph. They almost always refuse to stay still and will perversely always perch on the other side of the tree trunk from where you are. If you do manage to go to the other side, well my friend by that time the bird has now hopped over to the other side as well. So there you go on a merry go round chase.
The only reason I nailed these photos are because this is a juvenile bird and so it has not yet learnt all the tricks to avoid human camera traps. I also liked the last photograph because wow! is that how their eyelids close? Well, it turns out that these woodpeckers have a third eyelid called the nictitating membrane which actually closes from the front to the back like a neat sliding Japanese door and protects the bird's eyes from flying debris which is a constant existential hazard. This membrane is supplemental to the regular lower and upper eyelids!
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