Sunday, March 15, 2009

Meet Flicky ...


For about the past week, we've had a Northern Flicker in our yard. She hangs out on my back deck by my bedroom, where I have several bird feeders. I keep them filled with black-oiled sunflower seeds. She's pretty big, probably around the size of a large crow, but a little smaller than a raven. She just hangs out on my feeder, eating the seeds and pecking at the deck. I have a platform-type flat feeder that hangs on my deck railing. She just sits up there happily for the longest time. The other day she was sitting there when a squirrel jumped up with her. The squirrel (I call her Nips) took one look at the big bird and hopped back down. They did this over and over and I thought they were going to fight for awhile. However, they managed to take turns and seemed to be sharing the feeder. I also noticed that she sat there motionless for the longest time. I thought something might be scaring her, so I got up to look -- she was sound ASLEEP!

If you click on the link above, you'll see this bird is a red-shafted female Northern Flicker. They're members of the woodpecker family and mostly eat ants. Just like the Pileated Woodpeckers, males have the red moustache on the sides of their faces. This one doesn't have that, so I'm assuming she's a female. She sees me in my room taking pictures and she's a little skittish, but she doesn't fly away. I haven't seen her today yet, but she sure has made a mess on my deck. She tosses the seeds everywhere! We've seen these birds year-round here, but this the first time I've seen one hanging out so long. I guess until the snow melts and the ants come back, she'll be happy eating sunflower seeds -- and hopefully, Flicky will share with Nips.

9 comments:

  1. She is really pretty!

    Nancy

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  2. All that nature right in your backyard. I think that would be awesome to have so many animals and birds there to see (ok, maybe not the bears on your porch but the rest is cool!)

    And it is cute that you have named them all! lol

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  3. It's about that time of year for the birds to start singing outside our window at 4:30 a.m. I love it and hate it. :)

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  4. Oh, I love birds. I used to bird watch with my Grandfather. When he passed away, 9 years ago, I was given his bird watching binoculars. I'll be using them real soon, as spring has just about sprung here, and I can't wait to see my birdie friends close up once more!

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  5. Great photo and when my roses start to bloom - can I borrow Flicky? She could eat the ants before they could feed the aphids :(

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  6. I love your bird photos, Rena.
    What great detail in Flick's plumage!

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  7. I love watching birds! We have a pair of pileated woodpeckers that visit us during the summer, and a red-tailed hawk that ambushes robins from the pine tree in the front yard. I'm constantly finding feathers.

    As always, I love your photos!

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  8. Great to see other birdwatchers here. Nathan is our bird expert in the house, so he's always keeping me up to date on what's flying around.

    Nora -- Last summer I was downstairs and heard thumping noises on my deck. I ran up thinking the bear was back only to find a pileated woodpecker hacking the daylights out of my deck railing. She took big chunks out of it. Her beak was SO strong! I got some awesome pictures of her, so maybe I'll post those sometime too. They're so pretty with their big red heads!

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  9. Pretty bird. She photographs quite well.

    Yesterday we had a woodpecker making lots of noise. We do have to keep an eye on them lest they peck holes in our trees. And since we live next to 75 acres of undeveloped land with lots of trees, both dead and alive, we kind of feel they can do their thing over there. Still they are a hoot to watch.

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