Strange colored Flickers show up in eastern Idaho

Watching a flock of Northern flickers fighting over some discarded rotten apples was entertaining as I observed them near Mud Lake. Several score of these colorful woodpecker-type birds would attack each other over a preferred rotted fruit, which may have been the one highest in sugar or alcohol.

As one of the birds flew off, I noticed a flash of yellow instead of red; then another flew off with both red and yellow tail feathers waving in the breeze. There were a mixture of different colors as I studied the birds with my binocs.

Named for the color of feather shafts in the tail and underwing, these birds show color when they take flight or while they are bracing themselves while eating. The brilliant color during flight identifies the bird as to which subspecies it is. I recently noticed mixed colors on a flicker feeding on a suet cake in my backyard.

Three forms of flickers live in the United States; the Red-shafted, Yellow-shafted and the Gilded.

The Red-shafted Flickers live in the western half of the country and the Yellow-shafted resides in the eastern half with the Gilded inhabiting the desert lands of Arizona, California and Mexico. Where the red- and yellow-shafted coexist in the mid-west they interbreed creating a mixture of colored under-feathers. This has spilled over into Idaho this year.

Over the years several crossbred birds were seen and documented in the Rexburg area showing both yellow- and red-shafted feathers in the tail and wings. Some even had both a faint chevron (an identifying mark for the Yellow-shafted) on the back of the neck along with a red cheek marking usually only on the Red-shafted.

The Northern Flicker is a common bird and is widely recognized. Unlike most woodpeckers that are usually black and white with some red, flickers are a blend of subtle tans with black barring on the back, black spots on the belly and a large black throat patch.

The Red-shafted Northern Flicker found commonly in the Upper Snake River Valley excavates nest cavities in trees or use old abandoned ones. The European Starling competes with the flickers for these nests often driving the larger birds away in the groves of cottonwoods along the Snake and Teton Rivers.

They are extremely helpful birds to humans and other birds as they are the only woodpecker to feed on the ground, digging ants and grubs found in lawns. Lawn insecticides present problems for flickers as they forage for food. Over 2,000 ants have been found in the body of some poisoned flickers.

During the winter non-migrating flickers feed mostly from suet feeders and rotten fruit competing with starlings for their survival.

Being almost 10 inches long, this large bird excavates holes in trees large enough for most tree cavity nesting animals. Squirrels in Island Park, Downy and Hairy wood peckers along with wood ducks have all used holes made by flickers.

With the recent heavy snow, flickers are again common visitors to area feeders to present all their beauty to the careful observer. With four inches of snow on the ground this morning, I watched as a Red-shafted flicker caused a miniature blizzard while clearing the snow looking for lawn grubs in the frozen earth.

“I will supply more suet cakes,” I promised if only it would bring its cousins back to add color to a white bland backyard.