Northern Flicker (Yellow-shafted form, also known as Common Flicker, Yellow-shafted Flicker)

The Northern Flicker is a large, distinctive woodpecker with brownish plumage barred with black, a white rump patch that flashes brightly in flight, and a red or black crescent on the nape. Unlike most woodpeckers, they spend a significant amount of time on the ground foraging for ants and beetles.

Warm, rich salmon-pink to peach-orange coloration throughout the vane, uniform in hue with subtle melanin pigmentation and a pale, whitish-yellowish rachis

Mostly pennaceous with tightly interlocked barbs and barbicels along the main blade, transitioning to a small plumulaceous tuft (semiplume-like base) near the calamus

Smooth, silky, and relatively soft compared to stiff flight feathers, with a matte appearance and flexible, pliable vanes

Distinctive warm salmon-pink or yellow-orange coloration on body and covert feathers, pale shaft, and soft, rounded contour shape

Open woodlands, forest edges, clearings, groves, and suburban parks with scattered trees and dead snags for nesting and foraging

Widespread across North America, ranging from Alaska and Canada down through the United States and into Central America and Cuba

Acting as a primary cavity excavator, flickers create essential nesting homes for numerous secondary cavity nesters including bluebirds, owls, and small mammals

Red-bellied Woodpecker or Downy Woodpecker, but distinguished by the unique salmon-peach tone of the flicker's body plumage

Northern Flickers are uniquely specialized to eat ants, consuming thousands in a single day using their barbed, sticky tongue that can extend two inches beyond the bill tip

Good condition with intact barbs, clean vanes, and no visible wear, fraying, or parasitic damage