Northern Flicker
Northern Flicker, Yellow-shafted group of subspecies
A Northern Flicker just showed up in our yard, a sign of spring! Welcome! Here in NH, we have the subspecies that is in the Yellow-shafted group. You can see the beautiful yellow under wings. In much of the West, there is the Red-shafted group of subspecies and these flickers have reddish under wings.
Our bird had just arrived from migration. It tried to land on our suet feeder, but swerved away. Since we still have snow on much of our ground, it will have to find food in the melted areas. Flickers feed mainly on the ground and eat lots of ants. They also eat fruit, berries and seeds and sometimes come to bird feeders.
4 comments:
Saw a couple of them this winter, must have spent the winter! But they were in a pretty concentrated area, although I did have on on the CBC! Very nice indeed, beautifal birds they are.. they breed in our local park
I have them all year round in Ct on the Housatonic river. During the bad snow we had they came to the suet feeder.
love the norther flickers! i have the yellow shafted here in west virginia year round! usually not @ the feeder but i see them in the yard (looking for insects) or flying through!
I had a pair nest in a tree in the front yard. Every night the male slept outside the nest even in the pouring rain. great parents.
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