Northern Flickers

Landscapes and gardens (not to mention wilder places) are alive with (cool) things to notice, observe, and learn about.  My initial thought about this bird, observed poking around an old stump last June, was that it was female red-bellied woodpecker -- happily Randy (of Randy and Meg's Garden Paradise) pointed out that it was a Northern Flicker.

Since then, we've seen quite a few Northern Flickers in the back ravine, including three yesterday (spotted by my gardening companion, who's started to share my enthusiasm for learning more about birds).

Northern Flicker probing into a stump, June 2010

Northern Flicker foraging in an old stump, June 2010

And in my Field Ornithology class this spring, I was reminded about how Northern Flickers forage on the ground for ants and other insects (unlike other woodpeckers), so the poking about a dead stump would fit that profile (as I noted in the June 2010 post) and apparently had forgotten....

But we're both hip now to the distinctive calls of Northern Flickers now, and their behavior, so count that as another bird learned!

A red-bellied woodpecker (actually a Northern Flicker!)

Thanks to Randy, I know the woodpecker we watched yesterday morning (and thought was a female Red-Bellied Woodpecker), was actually a Northern Flicker.  I don't think we'd seen one before.

It caught our attention, foraging in the old stump below the porch, rhythmically working the decaying wood, snagging insects and their larvae in the process.

(In looking up info about the Northern Flicker, they forage largely on the ground, for ants -- cool!)

It had seemed unusual to see a woodpecker foraging on a stump, but maybe I haven't had one to observe before. We're still waiting for woodpeckers to discover the new suet feeder, an elaborate cedar log with holes to stuff with suet. The titmice have found it, though, and they're happy for the extra energy, apparently.