It's not unusual for us to see this colorful member of the Woodpecker family, the Northern Flicker, feeding in our backyard. In fact, last year we watched her raise a baby in our yard.
However, the other day I saw her exhibiting a behavior that I had never witnessed before. She was hunkered down at the base of our large oak tree, on the lee side, so that the treetrunk acted as a windscreen. It was a very cold and blustery day
and she seemed quite comfortable sitting in a fold of the tree--at least until she got hungry and began looking for a meal.
Are you wondering how we know it's a "she"? As in humans, she doesn't have the nice dark "mustache" sported by the male.
In this last photo you can clearly see the beautiful dark "bib" worn by all members of her species. Also, if I could have caught her in flight you would have seen the beautiful yellow underwing colors that have earned her the name of Yellow Shafted Flicker by which she is often identified.
