Northern Flicker (Colaptes auratus)

Photos by BarrytheBirder

Yellow-shafted Flicker (note black moustache)

Red-shafted Flicker (note red moustache)

Northern Flickers (both Yellow-shafted and Red-shafted types) are found from Alaska, across Canada (from British Columbia to Newfoundland), and throughout the eastern U.S., down to Florida.

Notably, Yellow-shafted Flickers have a black moustache stripe, while Red-shafted Flickers have a red moustache stripe.

Flickers are the only brown-backed woodpeckers in the east, and they are the only woodpeckers in North America that commonly feed on the ground, usually searching for ants and beetle larvae.

Red-shafted Flicker (preening)

On the great plains of America, the "Yellow-shafted" and "red-shafted" forms meet, interbreed, hybridize and are considered one species.

Northern birds move south in winter.

No other woodpecker is barred with gray-brown and black, with white rump.

Please comment if you wish.

BarrytheBirder