Being more a photographer than a birder, I don’t just have a list of birds I’d like to see, but a list of birds I would like to photograph. It’s not a formal list since it exists mainly in my head. If you asked what birds are on it, I’d have to think for a bit. Not infrequently, they’re birds I’ve seen but somehow missed getting a decent shot.
Today, as I was checking up on my lady goose to see if the eggs had hatched or not, it started to rain. I was tucking away my camera in my bag. The sky cleared for a few minutes and I heard a bird call close behind me. I turned around to see on the top of some stairs a Norther Flicker. They’re not uncommon birds, but I don’t see them very often. There was a pair that lived somewhere near my sister’s yard. I think they’re quite beautiful birds. They’re a type of woodpecker, but the prefer to eat ants and beetles and spend much of their time much close to the ground than other woodpeckers. They’re about 30 cm in length with a wingspan of about 45 cm.
The bird flew down and landed in a shaft of sunlight at the top of some stairs, putting it on eye level with me.
This is clearly a female since the males have streaks on their cheeks that resemble a mustache. From this angle, you can see part of the black, breastplate like, mark on her chest. With their colorful splotches and spotted undersides, I think they resemble circus clowns.
In this photo, you can see the yellow feathers under the tail.
You can also see the wing feathers have yellow on them, which is hidden when they are still by is visible when they fly. It’s this flash of yellow when they fly that gives them their name.
Here’s the last photo, taken as someone approached and scared her away. You can see the red mark at the nape of her neck.
fojap 