The Flicker
Another bird which is due to arrive soon after these early comers is the Flicker, a Woodpecker that can boast of at least thirty-six names. Chief among these are Yellowhammer, High-hole, and Golden-winged Woodpecker.
They live much in the open about groves and the edges of the forest, and so are the best-known and most‑admired members of this family. As their food is chiefly ants, they are often seen about decaying logs and stumps, and are frequently flushed from the ground where these insects live in mound-like homes.
In this respect they differ from all their near relatives, for Woodpeckers are, as a rule, tree-dwelling birds, rarely seen on the ground. Like Robins and Sparrows, Flickers even visit the fields in search of grain and berries; and it seems they are not content with the society of their kinsmen, but are fond of the company of other birds.
Their flight is wavelike, now up, now down, and their call notes are numerous. One note, and perhaps the most common, is a low wick, wick, wick. During the nesting season is heard a low melodious roll; but their most pleasing note Audubon calls “a prolonged, jovial laugh,” uttered with much bowing and scraping when several birds meet in mating time. They also have a shrill call note, kee-yer, kee-yer, more often heard in the autumn.
The Flicker is a large bird, a foot in length, or about two inches longer than the Robin. Its plumage has a great variety of coloring, in this respect being one of our most attractive summer residents. The head and neck of the male are bluish gray with a scarlet patch on the nape; the back and wings are brownish and black, the rump white.
The under surface of the wings and tail is yellow, the belly spotted with black; there is also a black stripe on the sides of the throat and a crescent of the same color on the breast. The female is similar in coloring, but lacks the black stripes on the neck. When at rest, the Flicker is most easily known by the black crescent and the scarlet on the nape; when in flight, by the white rump and golden lining of wings and tail.
The nest is in a good-sized hole cut in a decaying tree or stub, and the shiny white eggs are from five to nine in number. Their summer range is North America west to the Rocky Mountains and Alaska ; they winter from Massachusetts and Illinois southward.
The Flicker is not only a very handsome bird, but his large variety of calls, his wonderful activity and industry, make him very interesting, and well worthy of and fully rewarding close acquaintance.