Whatbird.com

Northern Flicker

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Mitch Waite

I live in Massachusetts and have seen this beautiful woodpecker type bird digging in the ground for bugs.  As I was trying to identify this creature, none of the pictures in this site do it justice. Although the written discription was accurate, the picture would have been more helpful if the black crescdent on its chest was pictured.  Thank you

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! 

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 

I was in my yard the other day, you know, birding.... anywho, I was playing this tape I have of northern flicker calls, trying to see if I could get it to respond.  I had heard it in the past, but I couldn't quite pinpoint where the calls had come from. You see because in west Philadlphia born and raised. On the playground where I spent most of my days. Chilling out, maxing, relaxing all cool and shooting some b-ball outside of the school, when a couple of guys who were up to no good, started making trouble in my neighborhood. I got in one little fight and my mom got scared and said "you’re moving with your aunte and uncle in bel-air." And it was RIGHT THERE!!

 

I almost fell over, and I think I scared it because it took off and I never heard it again.