Northern Flicker

Another bird from my backyard -- the Northern Flicker. It's a woodpecker. Notice its black bib, spotted belly, and red nape. The black whisker or mustache stripe on its face identifies this one as a male. 

It does not come to the feeder for seeds. I see it either in trees foraging for insects, or on the grounds poking at ants, which are a major component of its diet. Click to enlarge.

Here it is picking up a bit of debris to check for insects. 

I always feel lucky whenever I spot a flicker -- such a snazzy little surprise. 

More Flickers

Last week I wrote about the northern flicker that landed in the tree by my window. Here's a few more of them, this time on the grassy lawn that overlooks New York Harbor on Pier 1 of Brooklyn Bridge Park. There was a flock of flickers there this weekend. I was alerted to it by Heather Wolf who has taken pictures of ALL the birds in that park. Click on this link to see them: http://brooklynbridgebirds.tumblr.com. You can tell that the flicker pictured above is a female by her unmarked face. 

The male has a black mark on his face, usually called a mustache, but technically a malar stripe.  Click to enlarge. 

The male also has a red crescent on its nape -- just like the female's. Both have dark tipped bills this day because they've been probing in the mud for tasty invertebrates. 

A Woodpecker Visit

Look what landed in the boxelder tree outside my window! It's a woodpecker called a northern flicker, Colaptes auratus. Although flickers are common in New York and across the country this is the first time I've seen one in my very urban Brooklyn garden.

This birds was too big and noisy to miss -- about a foot long, and announcing its presence with repeated loud calls of kyeer as it eyeballed a little pile of raisins and peanut bits I had left on a fence post for the cardinals and robins. Although flickers eat mainly insects, they also take fruit and seeds, especially in winter.

The northern flicker is mainly brown and tan. Click to enlarge the photo and you will see the pretty pattern of bars, crescents and spots in its plumage. Note the red crescent on its nape. This one's black mustache, or malar stripe, indicates that it is a male; females have plain tan faces. See those yellow lines on the closed wing? The undersides of the wings are the same bright yellow and make a pretty flash of color when the bird flies; the bird is sometimes called a yellow-shafted flicker because of it.

Here he is in a typical woodpecker pose -- stiff tail feathers used like a prop for support.