The Northern Flicker comes in two flavours- yellow-shafted and red-shafted. They live in woodlands and forest edges. From what I’ve read, they’re ground foragers (ants and fruit), but they set up their nests in tree cavity holes. You can distinguish between the two sub-groups by the colour of their underwings, yellow and red. Their wings look amazing in flight. This particular specimen was hanging out in a neighbourhood. There tends to be a lot of trees and plants even in urban areas, so it’s not surprising to see them in the city.
They emit a loud call (kew kew kew), and in the months of May through June they get busy parenting a single brood of about 6-8 eggs (Bird, 2016).
Well camouflaged in lower branch
The underside of the wings contains the colour for each subgroup. I didn't see this one fly, but the first image shows that it has a reddish colour under its wings, identifying it as a red-shafted subtype. Regardless of colour, the two groups get together in the Great Plains for romantic liaisons.
Resource
Bird, David M (Editor). 2016. Pocket Birds of Canada.
Images by @litguru
Beautiful shots. Is that a vine growing on the tree? Looks like fur 😇
I think this is a birch tree. It has a beautiful wood covered with long furry tufts of moss/lichen. I had to crop the image to zoom in closer, but it's a majestic specimen with broad branches. 🌳
Aww, that creature looks beyond familiar! We have multiple pairs of Flickers who hatch out their youngins here every year in our giant Ponderosa pine trees. We love them so much we named our farm after them, and I absolutely adored all your gorgeous shots of the regal feathered friend😊
That's so cool. You get to see the full nature show. They're mysterious birds, always doing their thing. I like hearing their call, but I can't imagine what the little ones sound like when they're hungry 🪶
Beautiful bird, reminds me of the Argentinian woodpecker! And I love trees with those shapes.... the bird camouflages itself very well!
Interesting! It is from the woodpecker family. The trees will soon be full of leaves, so it will be able to hide their nests, if they have one. This bird could just have been looking for a snack up there.
It would be great to see those nests later on!
😍😍😍