Flicker Feather
This feather is another find from exploring the outdoors this weekend with my dog Zach. The number of birds with long yellow feathers around in the autumn or winter seasons is relatively short, and it looks like a Northern Flicker (Colaptes auratus). Roger Tory Peterson saw this brilliant flash of gold in a flicker’s wings and it helped inspire him to change the world. What always makes me use my imagination is thinking about seeing a deep red explosion coming from a Northern Flicker bursting from the ground. The red-shafted forms fill the American west, and someday I hope to go see...
Read MoreNorthern Flicker
Here is the species that started everything for Roger Tory Peterson – the Northern Flicker. It and all birds came to represent to Roger all the freedom, beauty and vitality of the natural world. This Northern Flicker is a male as you can see by the black mustache. The bird is feeding on the ground, as many flickers do, searching for ants, beetles and other insect life. This winter is a good example of how a warmer than usual stretch of weather can impact a certain species as these strongly migratory birds might not have to fly so far to find uncovered, unfrozen earth. Climate change...
Read MoreFlicker vs. Kestrel
Feathered friends! Ehhhh…not so much. These boys were not getting along as well as this photo may suggest. The Northern Flicker was slowly chasing the American Kestrel while I looked on in the early morning. Amazingly, despite their relative sizes, Kestrels will prey on Flickers. Scott Kruitbosch Conservation & Outreach Coordinator
Read MoreNorthern Flickers
Earlier this week we were looking for a Northern Flicker (Colaptes auratus) photo because, as you have likely seen, over 99% of the content we use we make ourselves. This is something we take pride in at the Roger Tory Peterson Institute of Natural History. We write, we photograph, we record, we film, and we create. We do not use outside materials except when there is no other alternative…and then we immediately try to get out and get the missing content ourselves. Twan and I did not have many Northern Flicker pictures, each of us with only one real usable image. They fall into that...
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