Attracting Northern / Common Flicker
Common Flicker:
Range and Habitat:
The Northern Flicker can be found throughout most wooded regions of North America and are residents from Alaska east and south throughout the U.S. birds in the most northern regions of their range are are migratory. They require some open area and do not nest in the center of thick forests but breed in almost all other forest types. Outside of the breeding season they also are regular visitors to other open areas. Flickers prefer woodland edges and open woodlands approaching open areas, savannas, pastures, orchards, fields, meadows, forest clearings, urban parks, suburban lawns or along fence rows bordering crop fields. Northern Flickers can be found throughout most wooded areas of North America, and they are familiar birds in most suburban environments.
Diet:
Unlike most other woodpeckers, Northern Flickers are primarily ground feeders although they will forage on tree trunks and limbs probing with their bill, also sometimes catching insects in flight. The diet of the Northern Flickers consists mainly of ants but also take other insects and some fruit, seeds, and berries. Ants alone may make up 45% of their diet.
They have a behavior known as anting, during which they use the acid from the ants to help in preening, as it is effective in keeping them free of parasites.
Attracting to feeders: Suet, peanut butter, sunflower seeds, fruit, meat, and bread. Fruit: apples, blueberries, cherries, plums, raspberries, strawberries.
Nesting:
Their breeding habitat is forested areas across North America and as far south as Central America. Flickers prefer to nest in dead trees. Both sexes excavate a cavity from 10 to 90 feet above the ground, taking approximately 1 to 2 weeks to build the nest. If natural cavities are available, the Flicker will select one of these as an alternative of creating one of its own. They can be attracted nest in man made houses. In regions where cavities are in short supply, Flickers will compete with other cavity nesters such as Starlings, Kestrels, and other species of woodpeckers. The nest has no nesting materials but the chips are left at the bottom of the hole to make a bed. Generally 6 to 8 eggs are laid, with a shell that is solid white with a smooth surface and high sheen. The eggs are the second largest of the North American woodpecker species, surpassed only by the Pileated Woodpecker’s. Eggs are incubated by both parents and hatch in about 12 days. The young are fed by regurgitation and depart the nest about 25 to 28 days after hatching. They are sometimes driven from nesting sites by European Starlings.
Shop for Northern Flicker bird houses at Northern or Common Flicker Bird Houses.