Northern Flicker, Havenwoods State Forest

                                  Facing east with the wind at his back this Northern Flicker is watching the sunrise. 

He chose this spot to warm up. The temperature was in the mid-fifties...barely up from  the overnight low.   The mid-fifties are not a problem for the Northern Flicker.  He could remain in Wisconsin all winter long if he chose.  

He looked off balanced though and bothered by the stiff wind that ruffled his feathers.  He twisted, turned and repositioned himself to maximize the sunlight while avoiding the chilly wind on his neck. Eventually, he just gave up and sought out a cozier spot.

A female Northern Flicker was nearby, too.  She was a half-mile away, across a treeless expanse, resting on a wire.  I couldn’t say whether these two enjoyed a relationship or not, but a half-mile is only seconds away for a flicker. 

Northern Flickers are in the woodpecker family. Males and females  look alike with the exception of a ‘moustache’…black malar…a stripe below the eye, which only the males sport. This is an eastern variant of the Northern Flicker called, yellow-shafted.

There is also a western variety of the Northern Flicker…red-shafted.  The two birds look similar, but are easily recognized as different, if you see them up-close.  

The western Northern Flicker displays red under its wings and tail where the eastern Northern Flicker shows yellow.  This Northern Flicker flashed her colors at the Bitter Lake National Wildlife Refuge, near Roswell, New Mexico last March. Launching from a snag, she headed towards the setting sun. 

Northern Flickers eat ants and beetles  by foraging on the ground,  unlike other woodpecker species that search through trees for their prey.  You're likely to find those woodpeckers on vertical limbs bracing themselves with their stiff tails.  To the contrary, Northern Flickers prefer horizontal limbs to perch upon. 

Elegantly feathered in buff colors accented with dots, crescent and even Valentine hearts the Northern Flicker would be a nice find on your walk in the woods.  Most encounters will be one-way enjoyable though.  The Northern Flicker is very skittish and will disappear in a flash, if he spots you first. The flash being the bright white rump he shows you as he darts away. 

Invite a Northern Flicker to your window this winter.  It only takes some nut-filled suet and a little patience.  It’ll be good for both of you.

Allan



Reminder: Click on any picture to enlarge.

Credit: Cornell Lab of Ornithology, All About Birds

Credit: Sibley Guide to Birds

Marsh Wren

                                                 

                                                                                                    

                                           I could hear him singing in the reeds before I saw him. Marsh Wrens sing a lot.

Actually, I had to wait a long time for him to come out of the reeds.  He was singing to be heard and not necessarily hiding in the reeds of the Bitter Lake National Wildlife Refuge in southern New Mexico.  Cattail reeds can be very dense…doesn’t take a lot of them the hide a small bird.

Marsh Wrens seem to enjoy singing…males sing day and night…females sing, too.  It’s a pleasant chatter…repetitive, bright, but I’m no music critic.  They sing mostly to claim territory and hold onto it. 

A male will build several domed nests in his territory. The nests have two side openings.  A female will choose a nest and close one opening. Males may have another female at the same time nesting in his territory.  Very territorial, he may puncture eggs of other birds nesting too close.

Breeding up north in summer and wintering down south, they need open water with cattails and insects to keep singing.

Allan

Loggerhead Shrike

This Loggerhead Shrike dropped down next to me, then quickly departed.  I figured he was frightened by me as he came in for a landing and reversed in a nanosecond…not so.

After his two-point bounce landing, he was off again…too bad for me…but no.  

Quickly returning to my side with this prize catch, an unfortunate wasp, he showed it to me. 

After beating the life out of the wasp on the stone pillar, he dispatched the head and the remainder was dinner.

His slightly larger relative, the Northern Shrike, is more likely found in Wisconsin.  You can read about him in a previous Feather Tailed Story.  

(I reposted that story to December.) That Northern Shrike was in the Forest Beach Migratory Preserve, near Port Washington.

Sources refer to the two shrikes as ‘butcher birds’.  That was the name used when I was a child and first heard of the bird.  It's their popular name, not a scientific name, but the description fits these two shrikes.

  

I found this Loggerhead Shrike at Bitter Lake National Wildlife Refuge in southern New Mexico.

Allan