24 replies to this topic

[goofy166]

Northern Flicker

[rundmc65]

I live in Massachusetts and have seen this beautiful woodpecker typebird digging in the ground for bugs.  As I was trying to identifythis creature, none of the pictures in this site do it justice.Although the written discription was accurate, the picture would havebeen more helpful if the black crescdent on its chest waspictured.  Thank you/forums/emoticons/emotion-52.gif

[kimmeh]

Sorry to say but the colours are rather off; the bird isn't that brown, it's paler, closer to beige, and even a paler beige on it's under-belly, and a pale gray on it's back. Also, when the wings are spread, you see yellow in the feathers. The underside of the tail feathers are also a bright yellow.

 

Hope this helps! 

[Brennan]

I took a picture of one of these the other day and some forum members here helped me ID it.

http://www.whatbird.com/forums/forums/thread/52621.aspx 

[birdboy]

I see and here flickers all the time but I just cant get them in my yard, I hung up a peanut feeder in hopes of attracting them and I have had many other birds but not rhe flicker. any suggestions

[luv2bird]

I had two females come to my compost pile to pick through the shelled peanuts every day for two months. They also would go to a place under a Southern Magnolia tree I tossed shelled peanuts and sunflower seeds for the squirrels. As soon as I bought a suet feeder and attached to the tree they went away and never came back.

[raptrlvr]

Here is a shot I took a couple of days ago. Usually the flickers will not hang around for a decent picture, but, this one did and I got several shots off at a pretty close range.

 

[cwj2323]

This is the best one I could get.  They are an active bird.  We would have never been able to ID them ourselves if we hadn't seen the way it clasped to the side of the tree.  (We did not discover this site until last week.)  We only saw them this one day and never again.  We live in Central Iowa. 

[UberBen]

[Inzl Kett]

I recently hung a bird feeder above the deck in my back yard.  It has been visited by several kinds of wood peckers.  One of them is the Northern flicker.  There is a pair of them living in a willow with a hole in it growing in the river behind my house.  A rather uneducated friend of mine calls them "railroad back wood peckers".  I couldn't find the term anywhere on the internet.

[Alilo6]

Funny you mention "railroad". I live across from a railroad and they are nesting alongside the tracks.

[Liam]

I'm happy. I have a pair building a nest cavity in my neighbor's yard. A bit hard to see with all these leaves in the way, though.

 

[JimUSNY]

, I actually had 3 pairs, and one pair of males that hung out with two females for the longest time, both doing their dance to impress her.. they are a little shy, but a few are not bothered by me much at all unless they are on the ground and I start walking too quickly towards them. I have 3 suet feeders and I dont remember a flicker going to any of them, just east off the ground and they love my locus tree. they do however hang out at my bluebird meal worm feeder and get the worms the bluebirds drop on the ground.. I tried posting a picture of a mating pair but it says I dont have permission, not sure whats up with that

[KRIZDA88]

We used to have at least one pair here and they would come to feeder relatively often (especially when we had woodpecker treat bars) I always enjoyed seeing them, we nick-named them "peck-zilla" because they dwarf everything else at the feeder. Haven't seen them in recent years but then I've been gone at school, hopefully they are still around. Cool birds. 

[lrcote]

I saw my first Yellow-Shafted Northern Flicker today.  I couldn't get any good pics, but enough to ID him.  The illustration is too dark, it's got lighter wings with dark spots, and red behind the head not strips behind the beak.

[cabirds]

[Melissa :)]

Wow, awesome pictures cabirds!!

[cabirds]

Thank you, Melissa!

I was just trying to get caught up and it was "recent" in the list. I didn't notice I was necromancing a thread from Jan. until after I posted.

[dklucius]

everybody here saying that they avoided the suet but mine love it and its the first thing they go to. have a nesting pair since early last spring and just recently started bringing their young to the feeders

[dklucius]

this one is out on the feeder as i type