For the yellow-shafted northern flicker, “you are what you eat” has proven freakishly true. These eastern North American woodpeckers get their name from a thin vein of yellow that runs through the ...

If there’s one species that changed the American world of birds, it’s the yellow-shafted flicker. As recently as the 1920s, birdwatching was largely done with shotguns rather than binoculars.

The flicker is both a common and conspicuous species here, but it remains a bird of mystery. Only one species draws brings more telephone calls and emails, and that is the bald eagle. The eagle brings ...

ONE OF THE most attractive and fascinating birds to visit our feeders is the Northern flicker. They’re big and handsomely marked. When a flicker lands on the feeder, it gets your immediate attention.

Northern flickers are large, brown woodpeckers with black-scalloped plumage that live year-round in Nevada. Their brown plumage is richly patterned with black spots, bars and crescents. The ...

While many of our region’s colorful birds fly south for the cold months, resident woodpeckers offer a reliable contrast to this season’s monochrome palette. A pileated woodpecker’s blazing crest and ...