Northern Flicker

Colaptes auratus

http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Northern_Flicker/id

All winter I was thinking of this one beautiful woodpecker that appears at Protection Farm only in the spring.  They are in WNY year round but they always show up here when the  dirt is fresh and wet and all the little critters that they like to eat are just emerging from a long winters sleep.  they are never around in the summer, fall, or winter. not sure why. Must be the food is better in the spring.

They are migratory and northern birds move southward in the winter.

Protection Farm Flickers like to eat the native Digger bee’s that nest in the sandy soil between the house and the barn.

The flickers are really quite colorful and have a determined attitude as they forage and dig relentlessly. They are somewhat wary of people, but hang out with many other foraging birds on the ground including cowbirds, junco’s a variety of sparrows, and even bluebirds. 

They have long barbed tongues for eating the delicious below ground grubs, ants, beetles, and bees.

The subspecies of Northern Flicker that we have in the east is known as the Yellow-shafted. In the west the bird Northern Flicker subspecies is called the Red-shafted. there are substantial coloration differences including the male "Moustache" or "Malar", which in the Red-shafted is red.

They nest in tree cavities, but have been known to nest in abandoned earth burrows.

The Red-shafted and Yellow-shafted are subspecies of the Northern Flicker. They do hybridize easily.

The male has a "moustache" aka "malar"

The female does not have a "moustache"

The Yellow-shafted has a red crescent nape. This feature is absent in the western Red-shafted Northern Flicker. Note the yellow in the wing margin. the actual quill of the feather is yellow. Same with the tail feathers.

The slightly curved bill is perfect for digging in the dirt!

these birds have a white patch on their rump which is visible when they fly. I spent two days trying to scare the flickers away so that I could get a shot of the white patch but I have not, so far, been able to get an in focus shot.

The Flicker has a very distinctive call, a little like the Pileated:
http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Northern_Flicker/sounds

Winter Woodpeckers at Protection Farm

We have three Woodpecker species at Protection Farm during the winter months that regularly visit the feeding stations. 

 Hairy Woodpecker  Piocedes villosus

This is the larger of the two "twin" Woodpeckers, the Hairy and the Downy

Downy Woodpecker Picoides pubescens

Noticebly smaller, you can easily compare these two feeding here on the same suet feeder

  Red-bellied Woodpecker Melanerpes carolinus

The Pileated Woodpecker (Drycopus pileatus) is unusual to see during the winter and slightly more common in the summer and fall. They are certainly here but they do not visit the feeders where we observe most of our winter birds. I have seen the Pileated at least twice this month, flying over the meadow but the intense cold and constant snow has kept me inside more than I would like. In the summer they are still difficult to see, but you can hear them frequently. They keep their distance. I know of a nesting hole about a mile from the farm across the marsh. Several years ago when we lived in Java NY at Hobbit Hollow we had a family nest just outside of our house. We spent an entire season closley observing mom and dad and two young. They were an extremely tight knit family.  I had, but long ago lost, a really neat photo of the four of them on a Norway Spruce trunk at about eye level.   Pileated have a territory of about 1 mile in which they are fairly protective. I occasionally see individuals coming over Protection Farm from the east and the west, and I assume that this farm is in a disputed territorial area.

Northern Flickers are also common here in the warmer months.

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodpecker

Woodpecker Order is Picaformes and the family is Picidae. Picidae are known as or “near passerines” which is the way ornithologists describe birds that basically hang out in and around trees. Woodpeckers are highly adapted to search for food and nest in trees.

There are about 200 species of Woodpecker worldwide. There are 54 species listed by the American Ornithological Union in its checklist area which covers North and Central America from the North Pole to the boundary of Panama and Colombia, including the adjacent islands under the jurisdiction of included nations; the Hawaiian Islands; Clipperton Island; Bermuda; the West Indies including the Bahama Islands; the Greater Antilles; Leeward and Windward Islands in the Lesser Antilles (ending with Grenada); and Swan, Providencia, and San Andres Islands in the Gulf of Mexico. Greenland is not currently included in the AOU (7th Edition)  

The National Geographic Society Field Guide to north American birds 2^nd Edition includes 22 species, and the Buffalo Ornithological Society Seasonal Checklist of birds list 7 species of Woodpeckers. You can download the BOS Checklist here:

http://www.buffaloornithologicalsociety.org/publications

I will post about our Protection Farm Woodpeckers in upcoming blogs.