http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flicker_%28bird%29

or, edwood, the peckflick...

never mind!

See, that's shorthand for, "It's a woodpecker, but it's not one of the two birds that are normally identified simply as 'woodpeckers'. Rather, it's a smaller less dramatically colored member of the woodpecker family which is generally called a 'flicker'. Not, you will understand, a 'flicker woodpecker.'"

Sorry if that was confusing for anyone besides matt.

So if it's a woodpecker that doesn't peck wood but instead pecks asphalt shouldn't his name be Assy?

It heightens the mystery though. Assuming it was a hairy or downy woodpecker (no jokes, please -- both are possible species in that part of Cap Hill), it's hard to know why it would be pecking at the sidewalk.

He was probablly just looking for a little fun, some companionship, maybe, sure he was just trying to feed himself, who doesn't work it to put food in the belly, but taking it to the street does take courage.

I suggest you take an entry-level course in logic. "Not a full-on" implies that it is partially a woodpecker. Like some sort of hybrid, as in a "peekapoo" is not a "full-on" poodle because it is half pekingnese.

Or it implies a lack -- as in FTMs are not a "full-on" man because they are not genetically male.

Again, flickers don't look like woodpeckers are "supposed" to. He would have just thought: "hey, that's a bird on the sidewalk."

There aren't only "two birds normally identified as woodpeckers", there are many. And flickers are relatively large woodpeckers, not "smaller".

Flickers aren't full-on woodpeckers because they're smaller and their coloring is less dramatic than the birds most people think of when they think of a woodpecker. In that regard, they are "less than" what most people imagine when they use the word "woodpecker."

Jesus. When you're done biting me I suggest you take an intro course in linguistics.

Flickers are as woodpecker as any woodpecker, they are actually pretty big (i think the only bigger ones around here are pileated woodpeckers). They are pretty obviously woodpeckers (even to people that aren't bird geeks) becuase they are almost always pecking the way woodpeckers do. There is always one by my house pecking on the roof or near the sidewalk and my bird-ignorant friends always say, "wow what a cool looking woodpecker."

Adrian wrote: "the sight of what was clearly a woodpecker."

Okay, if it were in a tree pecking, then you wouldn't have to be a bird geek to ID it as a woodpecker of some kind. But if it's behaving really strangely -- i.e. standing on the sidewalk -- I seriously doubt that a non-bird-geek would assume it was definitely a woodpecker.

But Adrian can clear it up: what did it look like?

http://www.birdwatchersdigest.com/site/resizedImages/yellow-bellied-sapsucker-82.jpg

Flickers may not look just like woodpeckers but they certainly look like they belong to the woodpecker family.

what am i saying? FUCK SUNSETS!

What direction was it coming from?

hey, everyone? It's a fucking bird with a specialized beak that friggin' PECKS!!

I thank you all for the devolved conversation, but can we get on with how stoned adrian was!

Thank you.