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the juvenile male flicker spends a little time in its own little world, nice to see the parents bring a couple of juveniles male/female to the suet feeder
Female Northern Flickers are large, brown woodpeckers with a gentle expression and handsome black-scalloped plumage. 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.
Cornell
These woodpeckers do seem to enjoy sunflower seed hearts, not that we feed them, of course. We saw two flickers when we moved here in 2016. Now each year we see at least a family (two new juveniles) and perhaps older juveniles. A joy to see!
Another foggy, smoky day.
Sunlight flickers and Sparkes on part of the Shubenacadie River Locks System today in Enfield l, Nova Scotia.
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.
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.
This trio of Northern Flickers (Colaptes auratus) were among several that were flitting about in this bare tree on a recent day. They were quite a distance away for this shot, across a body of water, but it helped that the birds were in direct sunlight.
Male Flicker takes a break from looking for insects and relaxes in the grass covered with the early morning dew. Smythe Park, Toronto, Ontario.
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.
Northern Flicker Intergrade (Colaptes a.auratus x cafer) Mill Creek area, Kelowna, BC. This fella popped out of a garden on the south side of the area, perched beautifully on this post for a few shots, then left for parts unknown. I'm grateful for the encounter! (364-38136)
For more on the different looks of Red-shafted vs Yellow-shafted Flickers, click this link: www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Northern_Flicker/photo-galler...
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.
Two male Yellow-shafted Flickers called from opposite sides of a very large tree at Lake St. Clair Metropark.
The Red-shafted Flickers are common in western States; Yellow-shafted is more common in eastern States. Both are called Northern Flicker.
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.
This Northern Flicker (Yellow-shafted Flicker) was really working a dead tree trunk, relentlessly rearing his head back, and thrusting his bill forward into a hole he was opening in the trunk. Small wood chips and dust were blown onto his face, and he furiously scratched his head with his right foot. I think something irritated his eye, which was closed during the scratching (as can be seen in the picture).
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.