To birders, “looking through the glass” refers to binoculars. Wildlife photographer Glen Apseloff, however, thinks of the phrase as referring to the windows of his house. Using a handheld camera without a flash or special filters, he has photographed enough birds from inside his house, through closed windows, to create two books. Some of the photographs and text in this slideshow can be found in his more recent book, Backyard Birds and More—Looking Through the Glass. All of the birds in this slideshow, like all of those in his books, were taken through closed windows from inside his home in a suburb of Columbus, Ohio.
He wrote each of the captions in the following slideshow.
Red-bellied Woodpeckers are common throughout most of the eastern half of the U.S. Males have a solid red cap, whereas females have pale gray feathers that interrupt the red on top. Males also have a longer tongue than females.
Males and females are the same size and can reach more than 9 inches in length, with a wingspan that can exceed 16 inches. Juveniles look similar to adults except for an overall gray coloration. They also often have some red feathers on their crown.
The oldest documented Red-bellied Woodpecker in the wild lived at least 12 years and 3 months; a male, he wasn’t recaptured, but his band was read using a telescope or a similar magnifier.
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