Northern Flickers Maryville and Alcoa Tennessee Winter 2022

The Northern Flicker Photo above was from my "Bonus Day" on December 19, 2022 for photographing this Woodpecker Species. 

I first Photographed and posted on iNaturalist a Northern Flicker (Colaptes auratus), along the Alcoa, Tennessee Greenway near Pellissippi Parkway back on October 9, 2022 perched high up in a tree. This was a new bird species that I thought was so different than the other Woodpeckers I had been learning about. I was still progressing in my bird photography skills so the images from this day were not real good.

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On November 1, 2022, while photographing at Springbrook Park in Alcoa Tennessee, I was able to a get a couple of good pictures of a Northern Flicker. This bird above was pecking and expanding a nesting cavity in an American Sycamore tree. I also got a shadowy view of it peeking its head out from inside the tree cavity.

The Northern Flicker bonus viewing day was on December 19, 2022.  I saw and photographed 4 different Northern Flickers and I believe I saw at least 2 more flying around. This area was in a seasonal flooded woodland and grown-up field wetland area. It is along the Alcoa Greenway at the 1/2 mile marker from the Maryville Greenway City limits. 

I photograph here often and I did not capture them again in this area through January into February 17, 2023. The birds from December 19 were probably migratory birds from the North passing through.

The Tennessee Wildlife Resource Agency has some interesting information about Northern Flickers.

TWRA Northern Flickers

“Northern Flickers are unlike most other Tennessee woodpeckers in that they are primarily brown instead of black and white, and often feed on the ground.  In fact, Northern Flickers eat more ants than any other bird in North America.” 

I have recorded 9 posts to iNaturalist that have been confirmed to be Northern Flickers and all of them the birds were in trees.

“Habitat: Northern Flickers are found in open woodlands, and forest edges, including cities and suburbs, and will visit backyard bird feeders. They nest in almost all forest types found in Tennessee.”

“This woodpecker was formerly called the Yellow-shafted Flicker in the East and the Red-shafted Flicker in the West because of their distinctly colored wing-linings. They are now recognized as belonging to the same specie (Colaptes auratus).”

“The territorial call is a long series of wick wick wick notes, rising and falling in volume and lasting 7 or 8 seconds. This call is similar to the call of the Pileated Woodpecker.” 

The TWRA link above has a great recording of this birds call and I can tell it does sound similar to a Pileated Woodpecker’s call.

The Cornell Lab of Ornithology offers this data about the population decline: “Northern Flickers are widespread and common, but numbers have decreased by an estimated 1.2% per year between 1966 and 2019 for a cumulative decline of 47%” 

This link has lots of other information about this different Woodpecker species:

Cornell Lab Population Northern Flickers

I close this Northern Flicker

 
  Closer to Nature....Digital Nature Journal

with a "Stealth Flight" of this unique bird!

iNaturalist Getting Started

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