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Taken just after sunrise and in an air temperature of two degrees, this Northern Flicker looks comfortable at puff-level five!
A female Gilded Flicker (Colaptes chrysoides) checks out a cavity in a cactus, possibly for a nest site. This bird and activity was observed in the desert landscape near Buckeye, Arizona, U.S.A.
20 February, 2014.
Slide # GWB_20140220_2227.CR2
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A Northern Flicker (red shafted) alights on a cottonwood stem, catching the last rays of sunlight on a cold winter day. Although they are well suited for clambering around tree branches, flickers mostly feed on the ground.
This Northern flicker was perched on the same tree as the ones I shot several days ago. Must have a good supply of insects!
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.
I do so love Acer Trees. The only snag is I have to try and protect them from the salt winds as I live on the coast. They also like a bit of shade, but as I have a walled garden that helps. They don't like chalk soil, so I have to grow them in pots. It is a challenge and probably not really sustainable but the colours in the Autumn are so beautiful it is worth the effort. The sun through this one made it look like flickering flames.
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There were seven eggs, and though it is impossible? to count, it looks like all the eggs hatched.
Mom and Pop are busy tending the newborns; feeding, cleaning, and feeding each other as they take turns tending the nest.
Among woodpeckers, Northern flickers are ground-foraging champs, especially when it comes to ants. Unlike typical woodpeckers, they hop around on open areas or forest floors, using their sharp, curved beaks to poke into soil or flip over debris.
Once they locate an ant colony, they bury their long bill into the soil and jab that long, sticky tongue in, slurping up ants and larvae. They’ll even hammer at anthills to break them open, or forage rotting wood for carpenter ants. An adaptation to expand the food sources in their territory, that most woodpeckers don't utilize.
Our beautiful world, pass it on.
A fiercely florescent Northern Flicker (Colaptes auratus) feeding on Suet which is attached to the rail of our deck stairs.
The male really stood out with his nape colours. He has been making a nuisance of himself by hammering on our chimney cap. Typical Spring territorial behaviour, but it's a bit annoying!
This Northern flicker was seen in the Countrywood/Bancroft neighborhood of Walnut Creek, California.
Trying to finish up August!
When I left Frank Lake it was still threatening to rain but held off for long enough to drive around for a little bit.
This is a terrible photo but it was so neat to see two of them on a fence. Once again too far away for a focused photo.
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Not many ants around, so this flicker was rooting around in the grass for what ever was edible.
Rondeau Provincial Park, Ontario, Canada, March 21, 2025.
Colaptes auratus
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.
This female flicker had been working on the nest just behind her when this male suitor came to visit. She paused her work to interact some with him, but they didn't proceed as far as the red-breasted sapsuckers from the same day.
Hey Mel and Sandra the male also showed up. The two flickers have been visiting almost every morning this week. They chat a lot. The nice weather is great with the birds. They are numerous, happy and in very healthy conditions.
This male northern yellow shafted flicker (Colaptes auratus) seems to have laid claim to this hollow tree, going in and out regularly as well as calling loudly while perching in the entrance. Announcing to all comers that this is his.
The gilded flicker (Colaptes chrysoides) is a large-sized woodpecker (mean length of 29 cm (11 in)) of the Sonoran, Yuma, and eastern Colorado Desert regions of the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico including all of the Baja Peninsula except the extreme northwestern region. Golden yellow underwings distinguish the gilded flicker from the northern flicker found within the same region, which have red underwings.
The gilded flicker most frequently builds its nest hole in a majestic saguaro cactus, excavating a nest hole nearer the top than the ground.The cactus defends itself against water loss into the cavity of the nesting hole by secreting sap that hardens into a waterproof structure that is known as a saguaro boot. Northern flickers, on the other hand, nest in riparian trees and very rarely inhabit saguaros. Gilded flickers occasionally hybridize with northern flickers in the narrow zones where their range and habitat overlap.
Los Angeles. California.
Northern Flicker at Springton Manor County Park.
I am always very pleased when I am able to get close to one of these skittish beauties
Species 115 for the Challenge 150
2017_04_16_EOS 7D_2166_V1
Alas, our flicker nest is not to be. I spotted a squirrel in the hole this morning who appears to have forced out the birds. Hopefully there were not already eggs in there...
The red mustache stripe and red underside of the tail are obvious on this beautiful male red-shafted flicker. Spotted in Glacier National Park, Montana.
© 2018 Marc Haegeman. All Rights Reserved
More photography of Glacier National Park.