Northern Flicker
Colaptes auratus
eBird gives this description for the Northern Flicker: Large, brown woodpecker with black barring on the back and black spots on the belly. Easily recognized in flight by its bright white rump. Also note large black crescent-shaped mark on breast. Underwings are yellow or red, depending on the subspecies. Generally “Yellow-shafted” is found in eastern and northern North America, and “Red-shafted” in the West south through Mexico. Often seen feeding on the ground in lawns, where they eat lots of ants and worms. Nests in cavities. All About Birds gives this additional descriptive information about the Northern Flicker: Northern Flickers are large, brown woodpeckers with a gentle expression and handsome black-scalloped plumage. On walks, don’t be surprised if you scare one up from the ground. It’s not where you’d expect to find a woodpecker, but flickers eat mainly ants and beetles, digging for them with their unusual, slightly curved bill. When they fly you’ll see a flash of color in the wings – yellow if you’re in the East, red if you’re in the West – and a bright white flash on the rump.
I met my first Northern Flicker on the morning of January 5, 2021, at Quinta Mazatlan in McAllen, Texas. The Flicker was high up in a tree and very difficult to photograph and view. I was able to get a good enough photo to make a positive identification. I look forward to seeing this beautiful woodpecker again and getting some better photographs. For details of the trip that includes my visit with the Northern Flicker, look here.
“Cool Facts” About the Northern Flicker From All About Birds…
- Although it can climb up the trunks of trees and hammer on wood like other woodpeckers, the Northern Flicker prefers to find food on the ground. Ants are its main food, and the flicker digs in the dirt to find them. It uses its long barbed tongue to lap up the ants.
- The red-shafted and yellow-shafted forms of the Northern Flicker formerly were considered different species. The two forms hybridize extensively in a wide zone from Alaska to the panhandle of Texas. A hybrid often has some traits from each of the two forms and some traits that are intermediate between them. The Red-shafted Flicker also hybridizes with the Gilded Flicker, but less frequently.
- The Northern Flicker is one of the few North American woodpeckers that is strongly migratory. Flickers in the northern parts of their range move south for the winter, although a few individuals often stay rather far north.
- Northern Flickers generally nest in holes in trees like other woodpeckers. Occasionally, they’ve been found nesting in old, earthen burrows vacated by Belted Kingfishers or Bank Swallows.
- Like most woodpeckers, Northern Flickers drum on objects as a form of communication and territory defense. In such cases, the object is to make as loud a noise as possible, and that’s why woodpeckers sometimes drum on metal objects. One Northern Flicker in Wyoming could be heard drumming on an abandoned tractor from a half-mile away.
- The oldest known yellow-shafted form of the Northern Flicker was a male and was at least 9 years, 2 months old when he was found in Florida. The oldest red-shafted form of Northern Flicker lived to be at least 8 years, 9 months old.