The Howland
Picture Pages: Northern Flicker The Howland
Picture Pages: Northern FlickerPage by Royce
Last update: $Date: 2004/12/22 04:41:40 $ (UTC)
The Northern Flicker (Colaptes auratus) is a sizable, Woodpecker-like bird that is frequently encountered in our back yard, and elsewhere on our travels North America. Flickers are migratory, but a number of them reside north all year long. Unlike their Woodpecker cousins, Flickers don't do a lot of hammering except on very soft, often dead trees. Instead they are primarily ground-feeding insectivores by preference, and often can be seen looking for ants along dry, open areas with exposed soil. They are also seen in trees, clinging to the trunk propped up by their stiff tail feathers in Woodpecker fashion, or simply perched upon a branch. In the winter especially, Flickers eat other things and will come to back yard feeders for sunflower seeds, suet or peanut butter.
On several occasions, we have seen one flicker. Then careful scrutiny of the surroundings identifies another, and possibly a third. Northern Flickers are predominantly brown and beige with black bars and spots, which enables them to blend into tree and ground cover quite well despite their large size. But just look for the colors -- they are marked by white rump feathers, red patches on the face and nape of the neck, a large black crescent on the upper breast feathers, and broad red-orange (or yellow in the east) flashes under wings that show clearly during flight.
While we see this enjoyable bird frequently, according to the CLO trends indicate the Northern Flicker's numbers are declining, particularly in the east. This has been linked to elimination of mature forest habitat and the use of lawn pesticides, to which the birds are very sensitive.
Resources where you can find out more:
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December 7, 2004, I was staking out a Calgary back yard to photograph a Hooded Warbler. It was cold, and the warbler (which had been hanging around town for a couple of months) had finally learned to come to a feeder tray for meal worms. The tray was full of lots of other good stuff like suet, black oil sunflower seeds, dried fruit and peanuts. So naturally a number of other birds came to the feeder as well. One of the other feeder visitors was this beautifully colored Red-shafted Northern Flicker. The bird posed nicely for a few shots in a spruce branch before hopping down to check out the food. This shot was taken hand-held with a Canon EOS 10D + EF 400mm f/5.6L USM lens. The light was dim due to the day being overcast and the flicker sitting in the shade of the tree, but I'm happy with the results. Especially for a hand-held shot. The image was processed a little with increased contrast and saturation, as well as gaussian unsharp mask before and after resizing.
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Here is another shot of the Northern Flicker, also taken hand-held with a Canon EOS 10D + EF 400mm f/5.6L USM lens. Processing was the same as for the preceding shot.
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Here, the Northern Flicker has jumped down onto the feeder tray and started in on some yummy suet. This shot was also taken hand-held with a Canon EOS 10D + EF 400mm f/5.6L USM lens. Processing was the same as for the preceding two images.
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One Saturday morning, January 24, 2004, I was up early to check out a promising field located near a client office in Englewood, Colorado, which is on the southern outskirts of Denver. While staking out the field, primarily looking for Red-tailed Hawks that I knew frequented a particular tree (and incidentally encountering a lively group of Horned Larks), I encountered another frequent flier of the immediate vicinity -- this Northern Flicker. The field has a small stream running into one end of it, and I have found the path along the stream to be nice for walking and bird-watching. I see Flickers, perhaps including this very one, quite often in the area along with a variety of other species. The Flicker pictured here popped up into the same tree frequented by the Red-tailed Hawks, disturbed from its ground foraging as I approached the area to check for small birds among the reeds behind the tree. I guess the Hawks were not a big concern. This photo was taken with a digiscoping setup.
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Here is another shot of the Northern Flicker described above. This photo also was taken with a digiscoping setup.
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