Northern Flicker: After the Hurricane

Northern Flicker

Northern Flicker

Northern FlickerThe spring migration has reached our backyard.

Flicker and Sapsucker

Northern Flicker


Yellow Bellied Sapsucker

It's always a special day when the sapsucker or flicker make an apperance.

Northern Flicker from Garret Mountain

The Northern Flicker is one of our favorite types of woodpeckers found in New Jersey. We get plenty of red-bellied woodpeckers and downy woodpeckers in our yard. We get an occasional hairy woodpecker and other members of the woodpecker family including yellow-bellied sapsuckers and white-breasted nuthatches. The suet feeders and seed keep most of these woodpeckers coming back. A downy woodpecker has even made a home in a hollowed out tree limb. However, the northern flicker doesn't come to our feeders but stops by occasionally to eat insects off the ground or trees. Here are two photos of this bird that we took at Garret Mountain this weekend.

Northern Flicker

While out on a walk, we encountered this Northern Flicker. It's nice to see some of the summer resident birds returning.

Flickers

While out in the boat, we saw two male northern flickers. They appeared to be having a discussion over territory, but it was fairly civil.
We like the top photo because it looks like one very wide flicker.

 

 

Northern Flicker

Here's a photo of a Northern Flicker. They have not been very frequent visitors, but we've been persistent and patient.

Northern Flicker

We shot these photos of the northern flicker on a stump. He spent some time eating insects from the dead wood and some posing on the stump.

Northern Flicker

A photo of a northern flicker on the top of a telephone pole.

Northern Flickers Again

The two nortnern flickers came by near dusk today. They stayed for about 30 minutes and had a duel in two different trees.

Northern Flicker Dance

Here is a video of the Northern Flicker courtship dance. Mike posted it two ways. A high quality video uses an active-x control next and the regular Blogger video with a flash player below. The blogger should work on more computers, but the quality isn't as good. If all else fails, the URL of the higher quality video is http://images.new-jersey-birds.com/Flickers.avi

Northern Flickers Dance (Higher Quality)

Northern Flickers

Aren't these some spectacular birds!

I was getting mundane chores done at home today, but everything came to a complete halt when in my peripheral vision I spotted some commotion in the yard. At first I said out loud, Awesome! Thankfully I then said, Get the camera, idiot.

It's possible there were three, two males and a female. This one on the ground appears to me to be a female because it is lacking the black line off the base of the bill, and the pair in the tree may be both males since they have that black line. I got a video also of the two in the tree (which Mike will have to post later), and I assumed it was a mating dance. Our field guide says when done between same sex it is for competition for territory or a mate. Leave a comment please if you can help with the identification.