Thursday, February 23, 2012

Don't Flick at Me!

These Flickers live in my woods on the other side of the road,  but after rains, they aerate my lawn with their large slightly curved bills looking for worms and grubs.  They are members of the family of woodpeckers but mostly eat from the ground.  They can be found in the trees also pecking at dead wood.  If you startle them, they will fly with a sound almost like the dove's wing whoop and you can see their flash of white at the rump just like our white tailed deer.  They are certainly handsome birds.  They visited yesterday and were eating the berries from the holly now that a cold front had made them a little sweeter.  All of these photos were taken from inside and through the window since it is difficult for me to get outside these days and thus they are not sharp photos, but the flickers still look dressed for some ball, don't they?





14 comments:

  1. Oh, what amazing birds! I have never seen anything like them. They don't have them here in England, needless to say. I haven't even seen them in an aviary.

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  2. I love the flickers. Since I live in the heart of a big city I only see them when passing through during migration or when I go to the woods. A couple of falls ago there were two yellow crested flickers in my back yard. They were anting. We have a huge ant nest under a small porch near the driveway and they were filling up. I still think about that every fall when it is migrating time. Your pics are fine. I also love the cedar waxwings in your blog heading. Another bird I see too little of. I do have a nice group of cardinals and even sometimes in the winter a white breasted nuthatch in addition to juncos, goldfinches, and house finches. In the summer we add chipping sparrows, bats, doves and any other birds that show up.

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  3. beautiful birds. we have flickers here but not that kind I don't think.

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  4. ooo i like those red head dresses on them...dont know if i have seen there....

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  5. They are beautiful
    I have never seen any like that here in my woods.
    Would they be here ?

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  6. They are amazing birds but can do a lot of damage to wood siding...they love to peck for food!! Ha!!
    Hugs
    SueAnn

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  7. What beautiful birds! I didn't know of them, thanks for enlightening me.

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  8. Interesting. I do not recall ever seeing this bird. I "wiki'd" them and I see they are also in Ohio year round.

    One Woman's Journey -you can see their range here:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flicker_%28bird%29

    The red could be seen as their tuxedo's cummerbund.

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  9. Love the Flickers. Thought of you today at Dani's post on Gardening Under The Florida Sun. You must go see her Cedar Waxwings. http://gardeningunderthefloridasun.blogspot.com/2012/02/cedar-waxwings.html

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  10. Did I say thank you for changing back to the old interface. I did also, but I did it so I could access some of the old goodies. Love those birds. :)

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  11. What lovely birds Tabor - Dave

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  12. One of my favorite birds ever, and these images are wonderful, Tabor!

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  13. Love your flickers. I have had one visit only once and sure wish he would come back!

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Glad to hear from you once again. I really like these visits. Come sit on this log and tell me what you are thinking.