Country Ecology: Northern flicker

I often see quite a few flickers moving through, with flocks of other birds, or in groupings of themselves. I notice their conspicuous white rump patch as these brown speckled birds fly up; rising off our lawns they have been briefly hunting on. Normally, flickers are open space birds and inhabit regions to the south of us, so I don't know where they are migrating down from for us to see them.

Flickers look different from most of the woodpeckers we commonly see in the New England wilds. The downies and hairies we encounter have black-and-white plumages, with the males of these two species having bright red patches on their heads. They also have strong, chisel-like bills. The flicker is more of an odd ball in the woodpecker clan. It has a speckled, chestnut-brown body with a black crescent on its spotted breast, and a black mustache — when it is a male. We might see yellow under the surfaces of its wings and tail if it flies overhead.