Wildlife Watching Wednesday: The Ant-Eating Northern Flicker

By: Tom Berg

The Northern Flicker is a large woodpecker that lives throughout the United States and most of North America.  These birds are a bit larger than an American Robin and are often seen on the ground, similar to Robins.  There are two forms of northern flickers: the yellow-shafted flickers that live in the eastern USA and the red-shafted flickers that live out west.

The yellow-shafted variety of the northern flicker has bright yellow flight and tail feathers which are normally hidden when at rest.  It is generally brownish-gray in color with heavy black spotting on its breast and belly.  It has a bright tan head with a gray cap, and a very visible red crescent on the back of its head.  Males also have a black stripe under their eye, extending to the beak.  Red-shafted flickers have red flight and tail feathers and a gray head.  They have a brown cap instead of a gray one like the yellow-shafted, and males have a red stripe below their eyes rather than black.

Northern flickers spend most of their time hunting on the ground, where they search for their favorite food: ants.  They especially love digging in the dirt with their bills at ant hills, where they happily eat the disturbed ants as they come out above ground.  They also eat the ant eggs and larvae that the ants try to carry away when the nest is disturbed.  Beetles, earwigs, moths and other insects are also eaten regularly.  During the winter when insects are scarce, flickers eat other items like seeds and small fruits.

During the warmer weather months, northern flickers can be found in forests, open woodlots, pastures, parks and even suburban back yards.  They usually make their nests in hollow trees or in holes they excavate in dead trees.  Sometimes they reuse a nest cavity made by another woodpecker species.

Although most woodpeckers do not migrate south for the winter, northern flickers do.  However, they usually don’t migrate very far.  Flickers in Canada at the far northern edge of their range will fly south to spend the winter in the central or southern parts of the USA.  Flickers in the Midwest often stay in the area throughout the winter, even when cold weather and snow blankets the area.

Have you had a great out experience? Join Global Outdoors and write a review to tell everyone about it! We’re building the home for trusted reviews of outdoor experiences, outfitters, and guides