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Northern Flickers are a mid-sized woodpecker reaching approximately 32 centimetres.
There are two types, the more widely spread Yellow-shafted Northern Flicker and the Red-shafted found mainly in southern British Columbia. Both have a spotted breast, black breast band below the throat, black barring on their backs (lines that run across their backs from wing to wing) and white patch on their rump, visible in flight.
The Yellow-shafted males have a red patch at the back of their heads, a black stripe down the side of their brown face and brilliant yellow under their wings and tail.
Red-shafted males, however, lack the red patch on the back of their heads, have a red stripe down the side of their grey face and a bright orange-red colour under their wings. They also have a bit of white around the black breast patch.
Females of both sub species appear the same except for the lack of the red or black stripe down the side of their face.
In areas where both sub species are found close they sometime hybridize making identification tricky.
It was wonderful to get a chance to photograph both the Red-shafted (left) and the Yellow-shafted (right) Northern Flickers at Hidden Springs, Idaho
Crazy Tuesday theme: Candlelight in the dark
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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. (All about birds).
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Northern Flicker ~ (Colaptes auratus)
A Northern Flicker outside a nesting cavity in Central Florida.
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A Northern flicker responds to my pishing from behind a nearby tree.
Taken at South Harrison Community Park, Elizabeth IN.
A Flicker visited our suet bird feeder - such a magnificent bird!
Still a bit of suet on the tip of it's beak!
From my two days in January with this really cooperative Flicker. I assume it's the same--same area, two days in a row and not at all phased by my presence, whereas they usually get away as soon as possible. More to come of him/her.
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Smile on Saturday - Title Wanted
I thought this photo was funny because the upper Flicker looks like it's yelling at the lower Flicker...and the look on the lower Flicker's face is hysterical.
The Northern Flicker gives a neat pose with the sun reflecting of its head, a beautiful bird with an array of unique feather co-ordination
I overstayed my welcome watching this flicker build its nest. It is giving me a piece of its mind.
Thanks for the visit!
Just before taking these photos I'd gone back inside the house and it was only as I turned around to have one last look on the feeders that I saw this beautiful northern flicker. A quick 180 and a slow approach back to the feeders and I was able to capture these photos
"And every time I go to bed
An image of you flickers in my head
And every time I fall asleep
An image of you flows in my dream
It flickers, it flickers in my head
It flickers, it flickers in my head." - London Grammar♫
The Yellow-shafted Northern Flicker shows off his varied plummage patterns.
Canatara Park, Sarnia, ON
This flicker was using an uninhabited owl box as a drum, I like the textures of the Cedar bark and rough sawn wood and having a flicker for FlickrFriday felt like I was checking all the boxes.
The Audubon field states "flickers are the only woodpeckers that frequently feed on the ground," probing with their beak, also sometimes catching insects in flight. Although they eat fruits, berries, seeds, and nuts, their primary food is insects. Ants alone can make up 45% of their diet.
Northern flickers often break into underground ant colonies to gain access to the nutritious larvae, hammering at the soil similar to other woodpeckers that drill into wood. Take note of the dirt on the beak of this one. It is one of the few woodpecker species that migrate. Photographed in the backyard area in Memphis.
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