Was sitting this morning on my plot and a bird flew onto a post on another plot.
It was brown with a red head. It was not green. It sat on the post for some time and squawked and something about its squawk made me think it was immature. It has a very pointed beak, so no raptor.
Short tail, in fact no tail at all. So another pointer to an immature bird. But it did not have black on the cheeks or white shoulders.
Been looking at pics of immature green wood peckers but they seem to have a mottled back and this was not mottled. And I have never seen a green wood pecker here, they are normally the spotted type. Though there has been some tapping going on locally.
I have scoured the net for matching pictures but none are quite right.
There is a guy locally who keeps exotic birds so this can confuse things. I once had a Temminck's tragopan in my garden which was a bit of a surprise.