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Yellow Shafted Northern Flicker
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| [Note Guidelines] Photographer's Note |
Apologies for the low quality (perhaps I should put this into the "near miss" area) - I had to grab my camera and shoot through the window and at a distance. Nevertheless, an interesting bird to see, and the key distinguishing features of the heart-shaped patch on the back of the head and the yellow shafts on the wings are clearly visible. I believe this is the female. This area has been plagued by ants, apparently the food this bird enjoys - see the note below:
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A common ant-eating woodpecker of open areas, the Northern Flicker has two color forms found in different regions. The yellow-shafted form is common across the eastern and northern parts of North America, while the red-shafted form is the one found in the West.
* Medium to large woodpecker.
* Grayish brown.
* Barred on top, spotted below.
* Black crescent on chest.
* Rump white, conspicuous in flight.
* Yellow or red patches in wings obvious in flight.
* Size: 28-31 cm (11-12 in)
* Wingspan: 42-51 cm (17-20 in)
* Weight: 110-160 g (3.88-5.65 ounces)
Other Names
Pic flamboyant (French)
Carpintero alirrojo, Pic-palo lombricero (Red-shafted Flicker) (Spanish)
Cool Facts
* 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 favorite 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, and the Gilded Flicker is considered a separate species.
* The Northern Flicker is one of the few North American woodpeckers that is strongly migratory. Flickers in the northern parts of the range move south for the winter, although a few individuals often stay rather far north.
http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/Northern_Flicker.html |
aido, Luc, valy67 has marked this note useful
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