Yellow-Shafted Flicker

John Mueller

First time I notice one of these.I really like the markings.
Wish I could of been closer.
Good amount of crop.

Scott_Quier

Crop or no crop, this is a great series. The bird is very nice and clear. Very well seperated from the background. I went out to your smugmug site to take a closer look at larger versions of these images (told you I like them, didn't I) just to get a better look at them. They look wonderful, even full size. Something to be proud of

Steve Cavigliano

Arrrrrrrrrgggggggggggggggg

Let me start off by saying I hate you John......

I have only seen a Flicker a few times in my life and the last shot I got was from 150 feet away using a 200mm lens :cry Needless to say, I didn't get much Flicker in the frame...

Seriously, these are really nice . That you got more than one shot is also an accomplishment They are such kewl looking (and noisy) birds. Sort of like a psychodelic dove/pigeon with the voice/call of a large jay.


Nice work,

Steve

GREAPER

Beautiful bird. I have to go look that up, I dont think we get them here. We have norther flickers but they have no yellow on them.

Great shots, thanks for sharing them.

Thusie

Neato bird! Great shots. Only see the northern around these parts

windoze

John Mueller wrote:

First time I notice one of these.I really like the markings.
Wish I could of been closer.
Good amount of crop.

\

let me repeat what steve said - arrrrgh!!!

there are two nortrhern flickers near my house but they never come over!!!! ive been trying for weeks to coax them over! how did you do it???

great shots!!!


troy

jwear

flickers are not easy --nice work calif guys have orange not yellow but i bet they are still spokie

wxwax

John? I thought we agreed not to talk about our Yellow-Shafted Flickers.:cool

Harryb

Hey John,

Those are excellent shots of a gorgeous bird.

Rohirrim

Nice series John- good captures. These guys are definatly hard to get close to. However, I do know several people that have gotten them to come in to their feeders. I've been able to get close a couple times when they were feeding on the ground by crawling slowly on my hands and knees (very fun with a tripod). Still haven't gotten any great shots as they are always behind bush.

It sounds as if the ornithologists have changed the species a bit. I don't fully understand the changes. The yellow-shafted used to be a sub-species of the Northern Flicker. Now they have split the Northern Flicker into the Northern and the Gilded Flicker. I'm not sure where the Yellow-shafted variety fits in yet.

19:39PDT- Edit- found more info on the species.
From All About Birds

A common ant-eating woodpecker of open areas, the Northern Flicker has two color forms found in different regions. The yellow-shafted form is common across the eastern and northern parts of North America, while the red-shafted form is the one found in the West.

John Mueller

Thanks for looking and commenting folks.

snapapple

Hey! Cool bird! I'm a bit late, but I'm glad I spotted this thread. Nice shots too.
I wish I had some cool birds around here.:cry

dallas

I never seen a Flicker that I know of, but now I'll looking. Thanks for sharing.