Northern Flicker Breeding Season

A couple weeks ago I told you about a fencing duel between Northern Flickers; over the last couple weeks it's apparent that Northern Flicker breeding season is under way. I'm seeing and hearing way more of these woodpeckers than I usually do. (They sound a little like their bigger Pileated Woodpecker cousins, which in turn sounds slightly like a maniacal laugh to me.)

If you're out in the woods this week, look (and listen) for these guys. I'm hearing them a lot right now.

Our Northern Flickers used to be called Yellow-shafted Flickers (denoting yellow wing/tail feathers seen best during flight) while the western US had a species called the Red-shafted Flicker (denoting reddish wing/tail feathers). Eventually ornithologists determined that the Yellow-shafted Flickers and the Red-shafted Flickers interbreed sufficiently willingly (where both species are present) that the birds evidently considered one another to be the same species. This led to ornithologists to merge these 2 former species into one species, the Northern Flicker (AKA Common Flicker). 

Our (yellow-shafted) Northern Flickers have a bright red spot on the back of their heads. The males additionally have a black "mustache". You can't really see any yellow in my picture, but the red spot and black mustache are pretty evident. 

April 13, 2021 at Duke Farms
Photo 189541663, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

When I saw the flicker in the 2nd picture below, I wondered if this might have been a female in a nesting cavity, but when I processed the pictures and saw the black mustache it was clear this was a male. Both males and females are involved in clearing out a tree cavity for a nest; perhaps this was a husband flicker warning other birds that this tree cavity is occupied.

April 13, 2021 at Duke Farms


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