As James Tanner started to climb the tree, he was tingling with excitement.

It was March 6, 1938, his 24th birthday, and he was about to glimpse one of the rarest birds in the world.

Tanner had been watching the woodpecker nest from the ground for 16 days, squinting and craning his neck.

It was 55 feet up, and a few moments earlier, when the two woodpecker parents flew off to find food, Tanner had gotten a crazy idea.

He decided to scale the tree and catch a glimpse of the baby fledgling inside.

Tanner had nicknamed the fledgling Sunny Boy.

It had black feathers with white racing stripes, and with every foot Tanner climbed his excitement swell.

He began snapping branches of stuff, hoping Sunny Boy would poke his head out.

Unfortunately, Sunny Boy had a different perspective on this visit.

After all, here was some huge featherless, huffing puffing thing breaking branches and jamming his beak right into the nest hole.

As soon as Sunny Boy saw that, he panicked and darted out of the hole to fly away.

The only problem was, Sunny Boy could not fly yet. He was too young.

And despite being a fledgling, this was a big species of woodpecker. Sunny Boy was the size of a pigeon.

So when he bolted from that hole, he plunged straight down toward the ground, his wings thrashing uselessly.

Watching Sunny Boy fall, Tanner felt his insides crater.

Had he just killed one of the most endangered birds on Earth? Thankfully, no.

Sunny Boy crashed into some vines which saved him from splattering.

Tanner scurried down the tree to untangle him, and what happened next was, frankly, kind of magical.

Still fascinated, Tanner decided to snap some photos, so he handed Sunny Boy to his guide, a local fellow named JJ.

But Sunny Boy would not sit still. He hopped onto JJ's arm, then his back, then perched right on top of his hat.

Not in panic, either. In fact, Sunny Boy seemed to be kind of showing off, mugging for the camera.

Now, ornithologists had heard stories like this before, that this type of woodpecker actually enjoyed attention and would pose for people.

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