This week I am sharing some images of a young Yellow-Shafted Northern Flicker who was exploring my wheel well and doing a bit of yoga atop my tire. I was out kayaking and as I approached the shore I noticed a few flickers on the ground grabbing insects from the shoreline. As I approached, most of them flew up into the nearby trees except this one who seemed quite content to continue examining my truck. I was partially hidden from view by the reeds so this bird didn’t see me giving me the opportunity to snap a few images.
There are two types of Northern Flicker in the NWT, the yellow-shafted and the red-shafted. The difference is in the underside of the wing and tail feathers. You can clearly see the yellow in these photos and the bright colour makes it quite easy to differentiate the two.
Interestingly, the Northern Flicker’s preferred food is ants and while they will feed on insects in trees much like other woodpeckers, the flicker actually spends a significant portion of time feeding on the ground by digging into the dirt and licking up ants or beetles with its long barbed tongue.
Flickers are one of the few woodpeckers that migrate. In winter they move to the warmer southern parts of Canada though there are a few birds who stay relatively far north over the winter.
The oldest known yellow-shafted form of the Northern Flicker was a male and was at least 9 years, 2 months old when he was found in Florida.