From my living room window the other day, I spied a large brownish bird with a striking white rump hopping about and pecking at something on my lawn. I recognized it immediately -- a Northern flicker, ...

Claim to fame: In birding circles, the northern flicker has a unique claim to fame: It’s the only woodpecker that does most of its feeding on the ground when ants and other insects are available.

This large, striking member of the woodpecker family is a foot long, with a bold speckled chest and hard to miss black bib, the northern flicker is the only woodpecker to regularly feed on the ground.

DEAR JOAN: Earlier this week we saw this bird scrounging on the ground for food in our backyard. It is about the size of a morning dove or a little bigger. It has a black patch on it’s breast and a ...

Few birds have more common names than the northern flicker. This flashy woodpecker goes by cotton-rump, high-hole, yellowhammer and at least 150 other colloquialisms. All these monikers speak to the ...

One of the most attractive and fascinating birds to visit our feeders is the Northern flicker. They’re big and handsomely marked. When a flicker lands on the feeder, it gets your immediate attention.

We have received several messages lately with pictures of this beautiful bird, asking for assistance with identification. The pictures invariably show a Northern flicker on the ground, not the ...

ABSTRACT Melanin is a common pigment in the plumage of birds, but the extent to which its deposition in feathers is condition dependent and can be used as a reliable signal of quality and reproductive ...

One fine April morning in 1919, an 11-year-old boy named Roger Tory Peterson was exploring a natural area in Jamestown, New York. He happened along what appeared to be a clump of dead feathers stuck ...

My yard must be one of the most exciting places for northern flickers. These large, brown woodpeckers don’t do much hunting, hammering on trees and dead wood like most woodpeckers. Instead they go ...