Northern Flicker

Identification

A large brown woodpecker that looks like no other: a grey crown, a brown back barred with black, a bold black crescent across the chest and underparts covered in round black spots. The white rump shows plainly in flight, and the flash of colour under the wings — golden yellow in eastern birds, salmon pink in western ones — is the classic way to sort the two forms, which were once treated as separate species. Eastern 'Yellow-shafted' birds have a red crescent on the nape and a black moustache; western 'Red-shafted' birds have a red moustache and a grey face.

Unlike most woodpeckers it feeds mainly on the ground, walking over lawns, fields and woodland edges to lap up ants with a long tongue, and it also takes beetles, crickets and fruit — it is the most terrestrial of the North American woodpeckers. It nests in a cavity cut into a dead trunk, a fence post or occasionally an earth bank, and readily uses nest boxes. The song is a loud, ringing 'wick-wick-wick-wick' that rises and falls, followed by a single clear 'klee-yer'; its drumming, often delivered on metal or utility poles, is a long, even roll.

Common in parks, suburbs, farmland and open woods across North America, and easy to watch as it feeds on open grass or perches on a wire. Watch for it bounding away with the white rump flashing and the wing linings glowing, and check any anthill or bare patch it has been working. In spring, listen for the drumming on metal — it carries for blocks and is one of the earliest signs that the season has turned.