More on Flickers!

by Judy Ranson
(nr Seattle, WA)

I love our Flicker guests. We live near Seattle, WA and have red-shafted flickers year round. They love our suet cakes and even hang onto the hanging feeder meant for small birds. We fill that feeder with a 'no-waste' bird seed that is mostly shelled sunflower seeds and peanuts. These photos show a male red-shafted flicker with its red moustache and a female red-shafted flicker without the red moustache. You can clearly see the salmon red feathers under her tail.


The first flicker that I ever saw had both a red-mustache and the red patch on back of its head. It was laying on the road (probably flew into a car). I thought the red patch was blood. But when I picked him up, I saw it was red feathers. After a few minutes, it recovered and flew into the trees. My bird book said that sometimes the yellow and red-shafted inter-breed. So he must have been a hybrid.



Comment

Great photos, Judy! By comparing your photos to the previous ones by Gigi, it is easy to see the difference between the Yellow-shafted and your Red-shafted flickers.
Susan