Bird Profile
Northern Flicker
A big brown woodpecker on your lawn is almost certainly a flicker, and it is there for the ants. Feeding one takes a different setup from the rest of the woodpecker family.
The short answer
- A flicker is a large brown woodpecker with a black crescent bib, a spotted belly, a barred back and a white rump patch that flashes in flight.
- Eastern birds are yellow-shafted, with yellow under the wings and tail and a red crescent on the nape. Western birds are red-shafted, with salmon-red shafts, no nape crescent and a gray face.
- Flickers feed on the ground far more than any other North American woodpecker, and ants are their main food.
- At feeders they take suet, peanuts, sunflower hearts and cracked corn, usually from a tail-prop cage or a ground tray rather than a hanging tube.
- Numbers have declined gradually over recent decades. Lawn pesticides and the loss of dead trees are the usual explanations.
At a glance
- Scientific name
- Colaptes auratus
- Length
- 11 to 12.2 in (28 to 31 cm)
- Wingspan
- 16.5 to 20.1 in (42 to 51 cm)
- Weight
- 3.9 to 5.6 oz (110 to 160 g)
- Range
- Most of North America. Yellow-shafted in the East and far north, red-shafted in the West. Northern birds migrate.
- Favorite foods
- Ants and beetle larvae; suet, peanuts, sunflower hearts and cracked corn at feeders
- Best feeder
- Tail-prop suet cage, ground or platform feeder
- At feeders
- Mostly fall through early spring, heaviest in cold or snow
The Northern Flicker (Colaptes auratus) is a large brown woodpecker, 11 to 12 inches (28 to 31 cm) long, that spends much of its time on the ground eating ants. It has a barred brown back, a black crescent across the chest, heavy black spots on a buff belly, and a white rump that flashes as it flies away from you.
That ground habit explains most of the questions about this species. People know woodpeckers as trunk birds, so a woodpecker hopping across a lawn looks wrong. It is not: ants make up a bigger share of the flicker's diet than of any other North American bird, and ants live in the ground.
This profile covers the two color forms and how to tell them apart, what flickers eat, the feeder setup that works for a bird this size, the drumming and excavating that brings homeowners into conflict with them, and what is behind their long, slow decline.
How to identify a Northern Flicker#
Size first. A flicker is noticeably bigger than a Red-bellied Woodpecker and roughly twice the bulk of a Hairy Woodpecker, with a longer, slightly downcurved bill.
The plumage is unmistakable once seen. The upperparts are warm brown with fine black barring. The underparts are buff with round black spots, and a solid black crescent sits across the upper chest like a bib. In flight, a clean white rump patch shows above the tail, and the underwings glow yellow or salmon depending on the form.
The commonest sounds are a long, ringing wick-wick-wick-wick that carries several hundred yards, a sharp single kleer, and a soft wicka-wicka-wicka exchanged between birds facing each other on a branch during courtship.
The flash that names the bird
Every field guide leans on the shaft color, and for good reason: it is the only feature visible on a bird flying away. Yellow underwings mean an eastern yellow-shafted flicker, salmon-pink means a western red-shafted bird. The white rump is visible on both.
Yellow-shafted and red-shafted forms#
These were once treated as separate species, then lumped, and they still look strikingly different in the field.
| Feature | Yellow-shafted (East, far north) | Red-shafted (West) |
|---|---|---|
| Wing and tail shafts | Lemon yellow | Salmon pink to red |
| Face | Warm tan | Plain gray |
| Crown | Gray | Brown |
| Nape crescent | Red crescent present | None |
| Male mustache stripe | Black | Red |
The dividing line runs roughly down the Great Plains and up through western Canada. In that belt you will see intergrades: birds with orange shafts, a partial nape crescent, or one black mustache and one red one. This is normal and not worth agonizing over.
In the Sonoran Desert of Arizona and northwest Mexico, the similar Gilded Flicker replaces it in saguaro country, combining a yellow-shafted look with a red-shafted face pattern. Outside that specific habitat you can ignore the possibility.
Where and when you will see one#
Flickers use open country with scattered trees: woodland edges, parks, orchards, burned forest, suburban yards with lawns, and in the West, open pine and cottonwood stands along rivers. Unbroken closed-canopy forest holds few of them.
Unlike most woodpeckers, northern flickers migrate. Birds from Canada and the northern states move south in September and October and return in March and April, often flying by day and pausing in loose groups on lawns and fence lines. Southern birds are resident year-round. If flickers appear in your yard in October and vanish in April, you are seeing migrants and winterers, and feeding birds during migration explains how to time feeders for that traffic.
Feeder visits peak from late fall through early spring, and especially during snow cover, when the ground food they prefer becomes unreachable.
Ants, and the rest of the diet#
A flicker's tongue extends roughly 2 inches (5 cm) past the bill tip, is coated in sticky saliva and tipped with backward-facing barbs. It is a tool for reaching down ant galleries, and ants form the largest single part of the diet by a wide margin. Beetle larvae, termites, caterpillars, grasshoppers and spiders fill out the animal side.
The rest is fruit and seed: sumac, dogwood, wild cherry, elderberry, poison ivy berries, hackberry and, in winter, whatever seed is available.
Pesticides remove the food supply
A lawn treated for ants and grubs is a lawn with nothing in it for a flicker. Broad-spectrum insecticides also pass up the food chain into birds that eat treated insects. If you want flickers on your grass, tolerate the anthills. There is more on the tradeoffs in pesticides, lawns and birds.
Flickers also practice anting, deliberately picking up ants and rubbing them through their feathers. The usual explanation is that formic acid from the ants deters feather parasites, though the evidence is not conclusive.
Feeding flickers at a feeder#
A flicker is a heavy bird with a stiff tail it needs to brace. That rules out most hanging feeders and points to two setups.
Suet in a tail-prop cage. The extended lower panel gives the tail something to press against. Mount it on a pole or against a trunk at 5 to 6 feet (1.5 to 1.8 m) rather than swinging free from a branch. Cake types are compared in the suet guide, and cage designs in suet feeders.
A ground tray or low platform. This matches how the bird naturally forages. Offer peanuts, sunflower hearts or cracked corn on a ground feeder or a platform feeder set at 1 to 3 feet (0.3 to 1 m).
Put the suet where the bird already is
Flickers work trunks and the ground, not open air. A suet cage fixed to a trunk or a pole within about 20 feet (6 m) of mature trees gets found much faster than the same cage hung in the middle of a yard. If you already have woodpeckers, the wider recruiting method is in how to attract woodpeckers.
Flickers are shy at feeders compared with other woodpeckers and are easily displaced by European Starlings, which also strip suet fast. Caged or upside-down suet feeders help, and the full set of tactics is in keeping starlings off feeders.
Drumming, roosting and holes in siding#
In late winter and spring, flickers drum in long, even bursts on anything resonant. Gutters, chimney caps, satellite dishes and metal flashing are chosen for volume, not out of confusion. Territorial drumming stops within a few weeks.
Actual excavation is a different matter. A flicker chiseling into wood or stucco siding is either hunting insects in the wall, testing soft material for a roost cavity, or attempting a nest hole. Cover the worked area with hardware cloth or netting so the bird cannot get a grip, and offer a substitute cavity nearby.
Nesting and the starling squeeze#
Flickers excavate a fresh cavity most years, typically 6 to 20 feet (2 to 6 m) up in a dead or dying tree, a snag, or a utility pole. Both sexes dig, taking one to two weeks. Clutches run 5 to 8 white eggs.
They are one of the few woodpeckers that will accept a nest box, but only one with an interior around 7 by 7 inches (18 by 18 cm), an entrance hole about 2.5 inches (6.4 cm) across, and the cavity packed full of wood chips for the birds to excavate. Sizing details are in nest boxes: sizing and siting.
Starlings compete hard for finished flicker cavities and often win, which is one of several pressures on the species. Retaining safe standing dead wood matters here, as covered in snags, dead wood and leaf litter.
Population trend#
Long-term surveys have shown a steady, gradual decline in Northern Flickers across much of the continent over recent decades. There is no single dramatic cause. The suspects are loss of large dead trees in managed landscapes, competition with starlings for cavities, and lawn and agricultural insecticides thinning the ant and beetle supply.
The bird is still widespread and familiar, and it is not formally threatened. It is the kind of decline that is easy to miss because a common bird stays common while becoming less numerous each decade.
A yard that suits flickers#
- Leave a patch of short grass unsprayed. Ants are the point.
- Keep a safe dead limb or snag standing if you have one.
- Mount a tail-prop suet cage on a trunk or pole at 5 to 6 feet (1.5 to 1.8 m), stocked from October through April.
- Add a low platform or ground tray with peanuts, sunflower hearts or cracked corn.
- Put up a flicker-sized nest box packed with wood chips if birds are drilling your siding.
- Provide water. A shallow ground-level basin gets used year-round.
Frequently asked questions#
Why is there a woodpecker on my lawn?
It is almost certainly a Northern Flicker eating ants. Flickers spend more time on the ground than any other North American woodpecker, hopping across short grass and probing anthills with a long barbed tongue. A bird jabbing repeatedly at one spot in the lawn has found a colony, and it may work the same patch for weeks.
What is the difference between yellow-shafted and red-shafted flickers?
They are two forms of the same species. Yellow-shafted birds live in the East and far north and show lemon-yellow shafts under the wings and tail, a gray crown, a tan face and a red crescent on the nape; males have a black mustache stripe. Red-shafted birds live in the West and show salmon-pink shafts, a brown crown, a gray face and no nape crescent; males have a red mustache. Where the two meet on the Great Plains, intergrades with mixed features are common.
Do Northern Flickers eat suet?
Yes, readily, especially from late fall through early spring. A tail-prop suet cage mounted on a pole or trunk suits them best because a flicker needs to brace its tail against something solid. They also take peanuts, sunflower hearts and cracked corn from a ground tray or platform.
Do flickers migrate?
Northern populations do, which makes the flicker unusual among woodpeckers. Birds from Canada and the northern states move south in September and October and return in March and April, often traveling by day in loose groups. Flickers in the southern half of the range stay put all year.
Why is a flicker drilling holes in my house?
Either it is drumming to claim territory, which is loud but harmless and stops within a few weeks in spring, or it is excavating, which is not harmless. Excavation into wood or stucco siding usually means the bird has found insects, a soft cavity or a hollow-sounding wall it likes as a roost. Cover the area with hardware cloth or heavy netting while the birds are working, and put up a nest box nearby packed with wood chips as an alternative.