{"id":4214,"date":"2023-01-01T18:39:46","date_gmt":"2023-01-01T18:39:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jimhphoto.com\/?p=4214"},"modified":"2025-03-26T23:43:01","modified_gmt":"2025-03-26T23:43:01","slug":"the-northern-flicker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jimhphoto.com\/index.php\/2023\/01\/01\/the-northern-flicker\/","title":{"rendered":"The Northern Flicker"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Not a rare bird, but one that’s hard to photograph.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Northern Flicker, Colaptes auratus<\/em>, is a strikingly beautiful bird that’s found throughout the continental U.S. and Canada, mostly in wooded areas, and is here in Minnesota year-round. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although it’s a woodpecker (note the impressive beak) it feeds mostly on the ground – in fact its favorite food is ants<\/em>. It’s hard to get a good photo of a bird pecking around in the dirt, even if you manage to get close enough. And when not feeding, it hangs out high in the trees. So opportunities for a good shot are limited. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But sometimes in winter, a storm coats the trees with heavy ice and snow, and covers the ground, and things get difficult for flickers. On one such day I spotted this fellow (males have the black stripes near the beak) low in a tree in my back yard, waiting out the storm and grabbing a few sunflower seeds from our feeder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As luck would have it, I had my camera already set up out on the back porch, with the big lens, so when I saw this beautiful bird within range, my heart rate went up. I was able to get just a few good shots before he took off. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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There 2 subspecies groups: the yellow-shafted and the red-shafted. The “shaft” part is under the tail feathers, not visible in these photos, but the red patch at the nape of the neck means this one is a yellow-shafted. The exotic colors (most woodpeckers are black and white) and fabulous speckled markings make this bird a real standout on a gray winter day. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’d like to lure him back, but they’re not common in residential areas. And for whatever reason – maybe competition from other woodpeckers – flickers seem to be losing interest in hammering into tree trunks for food, while having good success on the ground. Maybe in a hundred thousand years or so, evolution will have them even more more ground-oriented and looking quite different. But I hope they keep the crazy red, orange and pink. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Not a rare bird, but one that’s hard to photograph.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[653],"tags":[658,753,644,300,751,339,752],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-4214","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-myphotography","tag-bird","tag-colaptes-auratus","tag-flicker","tag-minnesota","tag-northern-flicker","tag-winter","tag-yellow-shafted"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimhphoto.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4214","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimhphoto.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimhphoto.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimhphoto.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimhphoto.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4214"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jimhphoto.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4214\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimhphoto.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimhphoto.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimhphoto.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4214"},{"taxonomy":"post_folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimhphoto.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_folder?post=4214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}