Northern Flicker

The Northern Flicker is a large brown woodpecker that spends much of its time on the ground. The back is closely barred black on brown, the buff underparts are boldly black-spotted, and a black crescent sits across the breast; in flight a white rump flashes conspicuously. Eastern birds — including those in Maine — are the “Yellow-shafted” form, showing lemon-yellow shafts in the wings and tail, a grey crown with a red crescent on the nape, and, on males, a black malar stripe. The bird shown here is a yellow-shafted flicker.

Unusually for a woodpecker, the flicker forages mainly on the ground, hopping across lawns and open soil to probe for ants and beetles, which make up the bulk of its diet; in fall and winter it turns more to fruits and seeds. It excavates a fresh nest cavity in a dead or rotting trunk most years, and abandoned flicker holes become nest sites for a long list of other cavity nesters. Spring birds drum and call loudly to hold territory, and fly in a deep, undulating bound.

In Maine the Yellow-shafted Flicker is a common breeder from spring through fall, conspicuous on lawns, woodland edges and recently opened ground, with most birds withdrawing south for winter. Because flickers feed on the ground, a low approach pays off — get the camera down to their level for clean eye-line frames against grass rather than shooting down at them. Watch for the white rump and yellow underwing as a perched bird flushes, and work the warm, low light of early morning when birds feed in the open.