Northern Flicker

Happy New Year, Manistee! These birds live in Michigan year round but we don't see them at Lake Bluff often. Today this female was here feasting on Don Kogut's hi-calorie special recipe mix that we pack into the log. Ants make up 40-50% of their diet so they are often seen feeding on the ground in summer. Their numbers are reportedly in decline. These birds are large: bigger than jays or hairy woodpeckers but smaller than pileateds. Flickers have very interesting markings: dots on a whitish belly and bars over a gray-brown back, a patch of black on the throat and one of red on the head. Learn more at this link to the Cornell Ornithological Lab http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/Northern_Flicker_dtl.html#sound
-Rich Krieger, Lake Bluff