Daily Bird Northern Flicker 2024
Northern Flicker. Photo by Gilles Carter.
April 15, 2024—Northern Flickers aren’t your typical woodpeckers. These handsome birds are just as likely to be hopping on your lawn, searching for ants and grubs, as they are hammering a tree. Their flashy white rump and bright yellow wing feathers make them easy to spot in flight.
This is the time of year when Northern Flickers are perhaps most noticeable, because of their loud call.
The Cornell Lab of Ornithology describes the flicker’s call as a loud, rolling rattle with a piercing tone that rises and falls in volume. It’s somewhat similar to the call of the Pileated Woodpecker (listen to them both here: flicker https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Northern_Flicker/sounds, pileated https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Pileated_Woodpecker/sounds).
While some flickers head south for the winter, a fair number are Connecticut residents year-round. They nest in cavities they excavate in dead or dying trees. Flicker populations have been declining over the past few decades but the species is still fairly common. Check an eBird map, and you’ll see plenty of sightings across the state.
Up close, flickers are stunning. Males can be identified by their bold black “mustaches” below the bill, while females lack this distinctive marking.
The flickers we see here in Connecticut and elsewhere in eastern North America are “yellow-shafted” flickers, named for the bright yellow wing feathers they flash in flight. Out west in the Rocky Mountains, you’ll find the “red-shafted” version, with some overlap in the Great Plains states.
One way to give flickers a helping hand is to avoid using chemicals and treatments on your lawn. These pesticides poison the ants and grubs that flickers and other birds rely on for food, and can even sicken or kill the birds themselves.
In fall and winter, flickers become more insectivorous, but they also eat berries. This is a great time to attract them to your yard with beef suet feeders. Your best bet is to attach the suet directly to a tree trunk, although a suet basket will work too. As a bonus: squirrels tend to leave real beef suet alone.
Northern Flickers nest at many of Connecticut Audubon’s sanctuaries, making them fantastic places to spot these fascinating birds. The Bafflin Sanctuary, at the Center at Pomfret, is known for having many flicker pairs. A good place to check for them is around any of the wetland areas with standing dead trees.
When Connecticut Audubon’s Migration Magic Birdathon starts on May 1, you should be able to easily add Northern Flicker to your list. Click this button for Migration Magic details, and don’t forget to sign up for the Birdathon!
Click HERE to learn all about Migration Magic!
This Northern Flicker post was revised from a previous post by Andy Rzeznikiewicz, who is Connecticut Audbuon’s sanctuary manager in eastern Connecticut.
