Hello, Ms. Northern Flicker!

Date: April 25, 2009
Time: 1:30-2:00 p.m.
Weather: Partly Cloudy and Windy, 82°F, 39% Humidity, Wind: From WSW @ 24 mph, gusting to 35 mph; feels like 82°F(!).
Location: The backyard of our home in the upstate New York city of Rochester.

Bird Species/Markings/Features: One female Northern Flicker (Colaptes auratus). We identified her as being a female because she did not have the distinctive black "mustache" markings on her face, common to males of the species. The brown plumage of the female and male are richly patterned with black spots, bars, and crescents.

Sights/Sounds/Activities: The Northern Flicker did not utter a peep in the backyard, but silently pecked away, gently hopping every few minutes to a another location all within a six-foot diameter for about twenty minutes.

Shortly she (the bird) flew to the middle of a large tree and sat for a while--something my terrible eyesight wouldn't allow me to personally hone in on, but that Anne did see.

Notes: Upon returning from our weekend trip to both the "bird store" the food co-op, I came up to check my e-mail and Anne had a snack. About ten minutes later, Anne called me from the first floor excitedly imploring me to "come down, there's a new bird in the yard!" (Anne is excellent at spotting them with the naked eye and then (using binoculars--which are always at the ready) thumbing through Stan Tekiela's Birds of New York Field Guide.

Based upon the shape of its long-ish slightly curved bill, beak and the bright red feathering on the neck, we immediately determined that it was a woodpecker, but just which type took a little noodling. What threw us off was the fact that, unlike every other woodpecker species we'd seen in the past three years, this one did not feed from the tree, but rather pecked around in the grass for bugs (ants and beetles) to eat.

It would appear as though the three feeders we installed (and have kept loaded) have begun to attract a wider array of birds. While it is pleasant to watch more common species, there is an increased level of excitement when someone new comes by for a snack!