Friday, January 25, 2019

The Northern Flicker

A beautiful woodpecker, that only visits my feeders occasionally.
If fact, I don't think I have seen one in years.
It has a very distinctive call which I remembered, I knew it was here before I saw it.
I saw a flash of yellow as it flew in to feast on the suet.
To me, it appears their entire undercarriage is a pretty bright yellow.
It has a small red heart shaped spot on the back of it's head,
a buffy/whitish breast with black spots, and a wide black necklace.

According to my bird book, it is a year round visitor in this area,
but when I do see it, it is only in the winter.
My memory of this encounter is far better than my pictures...



I saw it all day on Tuesday and have not seen it since.
I must have taken 50 pictures, 47 are worse than these.

I'll talk about the hawk tomorrow, it is still very present!

18 comments:

eileeninmd said...

Hello, it is one of my favorite woodpeckers too. They are beautiful. I usually only see them in winter too. Happy Friday, enjoy your day and weekend!

Author R. Mac Wheeler said...

Lovely bird. We're supposed to have spotted flickers around here...but never spotted one.

Michelle said...

That is a beauty.

Sallie (FullTime-Life) said...

I do like flickers because they are easy to identify by sight and sound even for me ! Except now I’m not sure if the ones I see in Oregon and/or here are Northern or Southern or Eastern or Western ... I am such an amateur.

Lowcarb team member said...

It's a lovely bird Debbie …

Enjoy your Friday and have a good weekend.

All the best Jan

DeniseinVA said...

Great photos of the Northern Flicker. I haven't seen one of these in a very long time. They have such interesting markings.

R's Rue said...

Love.

Farm Girl said...

I love your pictures. We have Northern Flickers from about Mid October until March or April. I am always sad when they leave.

Margaret Birding For Pleasure said...

How wonderful fr you that this Flicker has come to see you again.

Giga said...

I have never seen such a woodpecker in nature, it is beautiful. Greetings.

Laura. M said...

Beautiful photos Debbie. Thanks for sharing, I've never seen one.
Buen fin de semana.
Besos.

Marie Smith said...

One of those landed on our patio last summer. Such pretty birds!

Ruth Hiebert said...

These are beautiful birds indeed. If you ever get a chance to closely look at those dark spots on the belly, they look like little hearts. I only noticed that recently on a picture I had taken.It's pretty cool.

Sandi said...

A beautiful bird!

Brian King said...

Beautiful! These guys are generally quite skittish. I don't see them often.

Elizabeth Seckman said...

We have a few tree stumps in our backyard that attract bugs and a woodpecker. We've not removed the stumps because he visits every spring/summer.

Conniecrafter said...

I can only imagine how excited you were to see the woodpecker. It is a bummer you couldn't get a better picture, but so cool you were able to see it. I can hear the woodpeckers and cardinals before I see them too :) Hope he comes back so you get another shot of getting a picture!

Karen Lakis said...

Nice catch! I’ve never seen one.