Northern Flicker (Red-shafted group)

The Northern Flicker is a large, brown woodpecker with a barred back and spotted belly. While most woodpeckers are black and white, Flickers are distinctively brownish. In flight, they reveal a brilliant flash of color under the wings—red for western birds and yellow for eastern birds. They have a black crescent 'bib' on their chest and a behavioral habit of hopping on the ground to eat ants.

Dorsal surface is a muted olive-brown to grayish-brown. The diagnostic feature is the salmon-pink to reddish-orange glow on the undershafts and the inner vane, characteristic of the 'Red-shafted' western subspecies group.

Densely interlocked pennaceous barbs on the upper three-quarters of the vane for aerobic flight efficiency. The base (calamus area) shows a small amount of plumulaceous (downy) structure.

Smooth, stiff, and slightly glossy on the upper surface. The vane feels firm to the touch to withstand the high-stress impacts of woodpecker flight and drumming.

Reddish-orange shafts (rachis) and feather bases combined with a grayish-brown upper vane. Asymmetrical primary shape typical of Picidae.

Found in open woodlands, forest edges, suburban parks, and backyards. Unlike many woodpeckers, they frequently forage on the ground in open grassy areas.

The Red-shafted group is primarily found in the western half of North America, from Alaska through Central Canada down to Mexico, overlapping with the Yellow-shafted group in the Great Plains.

Primary cavity nesters; they excavate holes in dead trees that are later used by dozens of other species (secondary cavity nesters) like bluebirds and small owls. They also control insect populations, particularly ants.

Yellow-shafted Northern Flicker (identical shape but shafts are bright yellow), Gilded Flicker (found in desert southwest, yellow-orange shafts), and Copper-rumped Hummingbird (vastly different size).

The Northern Flicker is one of the few North American woodpeckers that is strongly migratory. They are also unique in that their primary diet consists of ants, which they dig out of the ground with their curved bills.

Good condition. There is slight mechanical wear and fraying at the tip, likely from active use or the molt process. No obvious signs of parasitic damage (no 'fault bars').