Polka-Dot 'Pecker

Day 26: This is a Polka-Dot 'Pecker. You can call it a Northern Flicker if you want to be entirely accurate or a Red-Shafted Flicker if you have an emotional attachment to the field guides you used when you were a novice birder fifty years ago, but Colaptes auratus cafer is unquestionably a Polka-Dot 'Pecker in my book. Cornell's website will tell you a lot about their life history, and mine seem determined to disprove some of their data, particularly the part where it says, "Flickers don't habitually visit bird feeders." Speaking from many years of observation of them here, I can assure you that a Flicker doesn't just visit a feeder; it occupies it, leaving no room for anybody else to squeeze in. Even the Steller's Jays, not quite as large but certainly more assertive, will not attempt to budge a Polka-Dot 'Pecker out of the box when it's gobbling down black-oil seed. They also enjoy suet blocks, and a solitary Flickeer can work its way through one in the space of two or three days. This young lady was cleaning up after the crows' breakfast of dog kibble, laying her face tightly against the board in order to get the last morsels. You might also be interested to learn that a Flicker's tongue can be extended two inches beyond the tip of the beak in order to slurp up tasty bugs, and that when their young are 17 days old, they begin clinging to the sides of the nesting cavity rather than resting on its floor. Flickers are amazingly agile, and use their tails to brace themselves against tree trunks and other vertical surfaces. Cornell will also tell you that Northern Flickers are decreasing in number and are listed as a "Common Bird in Steep Decline," so despite the occasional awakening to the sound of drilling in my carport, I love having them here.