Tag Archives: Northern Flicker (yellow shafted phase)(Colaptes auratus)

Northern Flicker Showing Off Its Yellow

January 29, 2025

A Northern Flicker (yellow shafted phase)(Colaptes auratus) proudly showing off his yellow. Sometimes I’m fortunate and get to see it, other times it is hard to tell why they are called yellow shafted. This a male. You can tell by the presence of that black mustache.

He’s sitting at a cluster of red, hairy fruits called drupes on a Smooth Sumac (Rhus glabra). A fruit quite popular with Northern Flickers though they’re known for pounding on the ground to get ants, beetles and their larvae.

Fortunately for me, these Flickers are here year round.

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One Of Many

January 13, 2025

A Northern Flicker (yellow shafted phase)(Colaptes auratus). One of an incredible number of birds that have been around for the peanuts, hulled sunflower seeds, and suet during this weeklong snow event. My count of species that have been in attendance is now at eighteen.

Flickers are mainly insect eaters, but during the winter they will also eat small fruits and seeds. When there is no snow on the ground they’ll eat ants and their larvae that they find underground as they pound at the soil, much like other woodpeckers go after insects in trees.

Such fun to have this snow lasting so long.

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