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Fun Facts
Did You Know?
Northern flickers function as keystone cavity providers alongside the pileated woodpecker, and the two species' cavities serve different size classes of secondary users. Flicker cavities — with entrance holes roughly 2.5 to 3 inches in diameter — fit wood ducks, screech owls, American kestrels, great crested flycatchers, and flying squirrels that need cavities larger than a downy or hairy woodpecker produces but smaller than a pileated woodpecker's massive excavation. This intermediate cavity size fills a critical niche in the cavity-nesting community, and the flicker's habit of excavating…
If This Animal Could Talk...
"Watch closely, respect my space, and let my habitat explain the rest of the story."
Northern flickers are woodpeckers that forgot they are woodpeckers, or at least forgot the part about staying on trees. Colaptes auratus spends more time on the ground than any other North American woodpecker species, hopping across lawns, fire lanes, and open fields to probe the soil for ants — a dietary specialization so pronounced that a single flicker can consume thousands of ants in a single feeding session.
Finding a flicker in North Louisiana often means looking down rather than up, which violates the first rule of woodpecker identification and makes the species perpetually surprising to birders who expect woodpeckers to be on trees, not wandering around in the grass like an oversized robin with a polka-dotted belly.
A Few More Facts
How they hunt and forage: Northern flickers eat ants. Specifically, they eat more ants than any other North American bird — a dietary specialization that drives the species' unusual foraging behavior and explains why flickers spend so much time hopping across open ground rather than climbing tree trunks. Ants dominate the diet to such a degree that studies have documented individual flickers consuming hundreds of ants in a single ground-feeding session, and the species' long, barbed tongue (which extends far beyond the bill tip and can probe into ant galleries) is optimized for extracting ants from underground nests rather than from tree bark. Foraging technique on the ground involves hopping across open areas — lawns, fire lanes, roadsides, pastures, cemeteries, parks — pausing to probe the soil with the bill, and extracting ants from shallow galleries using the sticky, barbed tongue.
Live birth or eggs? no
When young are born: In forests and woodlands where pileated woodpeckers are absent or rare — younger stands, fragmented woodlots, suburban parks — flickers may serve as the primary cavity provider for the entire community of secondary cavity users.
What Is the Northern Flicker Often Confused With?
Northern flickers measure 11 to 14 inches in length with a wingspan of 17 to 21 inches and a weight of 3 to 6 ounces — the second-largest woodpecker in North Louisiana after the pileated, and large enough that flickers in flight occasionally get mistaken for mourning doves (similar size, similar undulating flight) until the flash of yellow underwings and the white rump eliminate the confusion. The brown back carries narrow black barring in a pattern unlike any other North Louisiana woodpecker — a warm, earthy brown that blends with tree bark and dry ground equally well. The underparts show a creamy buff background heavily marked with round black spots, and the large black chest crescent separates the spotted belly from the tan throat and face.
Drag the handle left and right to compare Northern Flicker side by side with the species it gets mistaken for most.
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Accessibility
Accessibility
Flickers feed on the ground, which puts the bird at eye level rather than neck-craning height — a welcome change from every other woodpecker. Walk any open lawn, fire lane, or park path and a flicker hopping through the grass presents itself without binoculars or effort. When the bird flushes, the gold underwings and white rump flash hard enough to spot at serious distance. Visitors with low or no vision should listen for the piercing "kleer!" call and the rapid "wick-a-wick-a-wick-a" territorial call — both rank among the loudest, most recognizable bird sounds in the region.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Does Northern Flickers live in North Louisiana?
Yes. Finding a flicker in North Louisiana often means looking down rather than up, which violates the first rule of woodpecker identification and makes the species perpetually surprising to birders who expect woodpeckers to be on trees, not wandering around in the grass like an oversized robin with a polka-dotted belly. North Louisiana hosts the yellow-shafted form of the northern flicker — the eastern subspecies (C.
Northern flickers measure 11 to 14 inches in length with a wingspan of 17 to 21 inches and a weight of 3 to 6 ounces — the second-largest woodpecker in North Louisiana after the pileated, and large enough that flickers in flight occasionally get mistaken for mourning doves (similar size, similar undulating flight) until the flash of yellow underwings and the white rump eliminate the confusion.
How do you identify Northern Flickers?
Northern flickers measure 11 to 14 inches in length with a wingspan of 17 to 21 inches and a weight of 3 to 6 ounces — the second-largest woodpecker in North Louisiana after the pileated, and large enough that flickers in flight occasionally get mistaken for mourning doves (similar size, similar undulating flight) until the flash of yellow underwings and the white rump eliminate the confusion
What does Northern Flickers eat?
Ground Feeding and Ants
Northern flickers eat ants. Specifically, they eat more ants than any other North American bird — a dietary specialization that drives the species' unusual foraging behavior and explains why flickers spend so much time hopping across open ground rather than climbing tree trunks.
Ants dominate the diet to such a degree that studies have documented individual flickers consuming hundreds of ants in a single ground-feeding session, and the species' long, barbed tongue (which extends far beyond the bill tip and can probe into ant galleries) is optimized for extracting ants from underground nests rather than from tree bark.
Foraging technique on the ground involves hopping across open areas — lawns, fire lanes, roadsides, pastures, cemeteries, parks — pausing to probe the soil with the bill, and extracting ants from shallow galleries using the sticky, barbed tongue.
A flicker feeding in a North Louisiana yard hops deliberately across the grass, drives the bill into the soil at a slight angle, holds the position for a moment while the tongue probes underground, and then hops forward to the next probe site. The behavior looks nothing like other woodpecker species' tree-trunk foraging and everything like a robin pulling earthworms — except the flicker is pulling ants, and the flicker is doing the work with specialized equipment that no robin possesses.
Beyond ants, the diet includes beetles, termites, caterpillars, and other ground-dwelling and bark-dwelling invertebrates, plus a significant plant component during fall and winter: berries (dogwood, poison ivy, sumac, holly, hackberry), wild grapes, and seeds. Flickers visit suet feeders during winter and will take sunflower seeds, though they prefer to forage on the ground or on tree trunks for natural food sources rather than relying on supplemental feeding.
Is Northern Flickers dangerous to people?
No. This species is not dangerous to people when it is observed without handling or disturbance
