My younger sister, Johanna, once worshipped a TV show called “My Friend Flicka”. It was about a little girl and her horse, Flicka. It came on Saturday mornings and Johanna never missed an episode.
I also have a friend called Flicker. He’s a bird, in the woodpecker family actually, and one of the most beautiful birds of all. His plumage is extraordinary. I saw my friend, Flicker, in the yard last week. He flew to the feeder with sunflower hearts. I’m sure he would have rather had a juicy carpenter ant, but he was hungry, and as most birds, he can eat and enjoy sunflower hearts.
The Audubon Society says that flickers are still relatively abundant, though they have to compete with the more prolific starlings for nesting sites. Flickers can be found in most any habitat with trees.
They forage by hopping around on the ground, searching for insects. They sometimes fly up in the air to intercept a bug and they will occasionally eat fruits and berries, but they love ants. It is said that flickers consume more ants than any other bird. They also feed on beetles, termites, caterpillars, and other insects.
Flickers migrate short distances, usually seeking out food sources. They frequently spend summers in and around our yard, so I was delighted to see one last week. Twice that I know of, they have nested in our yard.
Flickers have quite a vocabulary. One call sounds like: “Wicka, wicka, wicka, wicka.” You’ll know it when you hear it.
Interestingly, the flicker is the only woodpecker that feeds exclusively from the ground. I guess that’s because they know that’s where most of the ants are.
They are beautiful and most interesting birds.