Who says I can't do acrobatic tricks?

This pileated could have his own act in the circus. Really noisy shot, but kind of fun in large...

I watched this guy land on the branch next to my suet feeder, like all the other birds do. But his height seemed to be an issue from that angle. He tried and tried to reach the small bit of suet cake left in the bottom of the feeder... to no avail... he just couldn't bend that way. So instead of repositioning himself to the side of the trunk (as he does on other trees) he swung his body down like a trapeze artist and worked hard to get his tail feathers against the trunk below him for balance. Now his head was low enough to awkwardly reach into the feeder. I had fun watching this strange behavior unfold, but it got even funnier when a blue jay showed up and Mr. Pileated was stuck in this position... He did manage to pull up and sit on the branch, but eventually the smaller blue jay won the spot at the feeder. (Possibly just because Mr. Pileated was fairly embarrassed.) Even funnier, the blue jay was chased away by the much smaller downy woodpecker... I guess size doesn't matter. ;)

Sorry about the quality of the image. I shot this through a double paned, slightly tinted somewhat dirty window. He would have left if I had opened it and I didn't want to miss a chance at these antics. :)

Super far behind... Sometimes life has to come before blip... :( Working on catching up tonight. Thanks for continuing to stop by. :)