Today we look at the Red Shafted Northern Flicker.
Flickers, as a type of woodpecker, commonly feed on the ground or dead tree snags, looking for ants and beetle larvae. They will eat suet from feeders through the winter. There are two types of flickers, red and yellow shafted. Yellow shafted flickers are very rare but also seen in our region from time to time. Flicker parents will excavate nests in wood. Males and females typically work together to dig out a nest up to 18 inches deep in a tree or utility pole. The couple also shares the duties when it comes to sitting on the eggs and feeding the young. Flickers will return to the same area to breed year after year. You may have noticed their very awkward flying patterns, as they don’t fly smoothly, often with very irregular time for wing flaps. This is very common for many woodpeckers.
