3-toed Northern Woodpecker (bears, what bears?)

This bird visited the same tree each evening just by the top platform at Brooks Falls, AK.
1ds, 300mm f/2.8 @2.8, 1/125s ISO200 handheld (possibly resting on the deck rail). They don't let you use fill-flash there for the bears, so I was without that gear. The light was just about usable... with the 1Ds you don't want to crank the ISO up too much.

The bird was at minimum focussing distance (these Americans... so lacking in shyness), 2.5m. This one does appear critically sharp right on the nose, but the depth of field you get at f/2.8, 2.5m (about 2cm) is rather less than the depth of the bird.

I'm not sure if I have all of the tail, but in a large number of shots it always looks like this. I think it's deployed as a stabilizer. You can see that the chap returns to the same tree from his previous holes there. For a woodpecker his style was quite delicate, although clearly audible.

Needless to say it was oblivious to the great lumbering and smelly beasts passing beneath. And the tourists seemed equally oblivious to the bird.