Northern Flickers aka Common Flickers, Yellow Shafted Flickers
Members of the Picidae Family: Sapsuckers
Wild Bird Food / Seed ... Humming Bird Feeders / Feed ... Bird Houses / Bird Nests ... Woodworking Instructions to Build Bird Houses ... RecommendedBooks
The Northern Flicker aka Common Flicker, Yellow Shafted Flicker (Colaptes Auratus) is a medium-sized woodpecker. There are two variants which were formerly considered separate species (Yellow-shafted & the Red-shafted Flickers).
The Red-shafted Flicker resides in western North America. The two variants interbreed where their ranges overlap.
Description:
Adults are brown with black bars on the back and wings. Their breast and belly are beige with black spots; they have a black "necklace". The tail is dark on top. They show a white rump in flight.
They are yellow under the tail and underwings and have yellow shafts on their primaries. They have a grey cap, a beige face and a red bar on their neck.
The red-shafted flickers are red under the tail and underwings and have red shafts on their primaries. They have a beige cap, a grey face and a red mustache.
Like many woodpeckers, its flight is undulating. The repeated cycle of a quick succession of flaps followed by a pause creates an effect comparable to a rollercoaster.
Distribution / Range:
The Yellow-shafted Flicker resides in eastern North America. Their breeding habitat is forested areas across North America, as far south as Central America. Northern birds migrate to the southern parts of the range; southern birds are often permanent residents.
Nesting / Breeding:
They nest in a cavity in a tree or post; this bird excavates its own home. Abandoned flicker nests create habitat for other cavity nesters. They are sometimes driven from nesting sites by European Starlings. It takes about 1 to 2 weeks to build the nest which is built by both sexes of the mating pairs. Damaged nests or previously abandoned cavities may be repaired. The entrance hole isroughly 5cm to 10cm wide.
Flickers will sometimes be willing to use a birdhouse if it is adequately sized and properly situated.
Typically 6 to 8 eggs are laid, having a shell that is pure white with a smooth surface and high gloss. The eggs are the largest of the North American woodpecker species, exceeded only by the Pileated Woodpecker's egg. Incubation is by both sexes for approximately 11 to 12 days.
The young are fed by regurgitation and leave the nest about 25 to 28 days after hatching.
Diet:
These birds feed on the ground, probing with their bill, also sometimes catching insects in flight. Although they eat fruits, berries, seeds and nuts, their primary food is insects. Ants alone can make up to 45% of their diet.
Song / Call:
This bird's call is a sustained laugh, ki ki ki ki ..., more congenial than that of the Pileated Woodpecker. A sample of their song can be heard at the USGS web site here: Flickers often drum on trees or even metal objects to declare territory. Pesticide use on lawns may be contributing to a decline in their numbers.
Copyright: Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from Wikipedia.org
Nesting Boxes & Structures: Building A Home for Northern Flickers
Related Web Resources: USGS ... Birds of Nova Scotia ... Oiseaux.net / French ... Mangoverde
If you would like to add to or correct any of the above information, or would like to share with the AvianWeb visitors your own experiences, please e-mail the AvianWeb Webmaster.
Photo contributions and articles are welcome!
