The Northern Flicker

Jul 22, 2010

By Lorraine Julien

A few days ago, I happened to glance out one of our windows that faces a little concrete slab pathway. I had not seen a Northern Flicker here before so was amazed to see one digging for insects in the cracks between the slabs. Too bad he didn’t continue his work as he did a good job of getting rid of the weeds around the concrete as well as the ants! Apparently, ants alone make up almost half of the Flicker’s diet. In fact, this bird eats more ants than any other North American bird. No wonder they like to visit here! As my neighbours will confirm, this is a bountiful year for ants!

The Northern Flicker is a strange character compared to the rest of the Woodpecker family as this bird loves to root around on the ground searching for insects, fallen fruits and seeds. It’s also one of the few woodpeckers that actually migrates south in the winter. They differ also from other woodpeckers as their general coloration is brown rather than the usual black and white.

At an average 10 – 13 inches in length and a wingspan as much as 20 inches, the Northern Flicker is a fairly large bird. Though Flickers range across all of North America, there are two main sub-species - an Eastern version and a Western version with some inbreeding where the ranges overlap. Basically, our Eastern bird is referred to as the Yellow-shafted Flicker whereas its Western cousin is called the Red-shafted Flicker. The difference is that the Eastern bird is yellow under the tail and wings and has a yellow shaft on its body whereas the Western version looks similar but has red markings in those same areas. Both versions have a striking white rump.

Our Yellow-shafted Flicker also has a grey cap, a buff or beige face and a red bar at the nape of their necks. The Eastern male also has a black “mustache”. This unusual and colourful bird is very easy to identify as it looks quite different from most other woodpeckers.

For some reason, across North America this bird has been given over 100 nick-names depending on the area it’s visiting: Wake-up (very appropriate), Heigh-ho and Yellowhammer are just a few of the odd names.

The Northern Flicker is a great bird to entice to your garden as it loves ground insects and, of course, its favourite treat, ants, which are licked up with a tongue that extends 3” beyond its beak. Because of its love of foraging for food on the ground, it loves open fields, yards and farmland. Trees and telephone poles are used for nesting though it may burrow into fence posts, telephone poles and under eavestroughs. The 3-14 white eggs are laid in a cavity anywhere from 8-100 feet above the ground.

Like most woodpeckers, Northern Flickers love to drum on trees but they also drum on metal objects such as roof vents. My neighbour’s whirly bird vent is a favourite place for our resident Flicker to hammer away in the early morning hours. The noise must be deafening inside the cottage and continues on for what seems like ages. Plenty of time to wake up our neighbour who is a “nighthawk” (pardon the pun) and loves to sleep in! When the Flicker visits, it creates a real cacophony of noise and, with the constant drumming, it would be impossible to sleep. It’s quite funny to see this sleepy neighbour running outside wielding a broom trying to chase the drummer away. Of course the poor bird was just trying to communicate with his friends and mark his territory!

Please feel free to report any observations to Lorraine Julien at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.  or Steve Blight at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.