Cool Flickers
I noticed this past winter that a Flicker was coming to my bird feeder and eating out of it.
Flickers are woodpeckers, and not really the kind of bird you'd expect to perch on a bird feeder to eat seeds. They aren't small, a bit larger than a Jay, smaller than a Crow. However this one Flicker learned to grab on to the feeder near the bottom, which puts its head about the height of the upper hole.
I just saw two Flickers arrive at the tree near the feeder, one Flicker got some seeds, then flew back to the tree and regurgitated for the second Flicker. Yay! Mommy bird is teaching baby bird that this is a place to eat, and that you can get seeds from it. Baby bird isn't so much a baby at this point, it's fully fledged, but still.
Here's what they look like, they're very pretty birds:
I think the picture is of Yellow-Shafted Flickers, the ones out here are Red-Shafted, I think the only major difference is that rather than the feathers on the undersides of the wings being yellow, ours are more orangy-red in color.
Flickers are woodpeckers, and not really the kind of bird you'd expect to perch on a bird feeder to eat seeds. They aren't small, a bit larger than a Jay, smaller than a Crow. However this one Flicker learned to grab on to the feeder near the bottom, which puts its head about the height of the upper hole.
I just saw two Flickers arrive at the tree near the feeder, one Flicker got some seeds, then flew back to the tree and regurgitated for the second Flicker. Yay! Mommy bird is teaching baby bird that this is a place to eat, and that you can get seeds from it. Baby bird isn't so much a baby at this point, it's fully fledged, but still.
Here's what they look like, they're very pretty birds:
I think the picture is of Yellow-Shafted Flickers, the ones out here are Red-Shafted, I think the only major difference is that rather than the feathers on the undersides of the wings being yellow, ours are more orangy-red in color.