She is now the sole proprietor of From the Garden, a market garden farmette. Note: Some information from Д®llen Peffley taught horticulture at the college level for 28 years, 25 of those at Texas Tech, during which time she developed two onion varieties. The Red-shafted Flicker in the accompanying photo was devouring fallen Chinese Pistachio berries the day its image was snapped. Good sources of winter berries are native sumacs, hollies, and junipers and black oil sunflower seed is always a nutritious supplement.ДЇlickers feed on the surface of trees and more frequently forage on the ground for ants, beetles, berries and nuts. Have available foods high in fats and calories, which the birds need to refuel as they continue their flight south.

To attract flickers and other migratory birds to the garden provide a diverse habitat with a source of fresh water. Migratory birds are valued in gardens not only because of the vibrant colors they bring in the dead of winter, but they also feast on insects. campestroides)sometimes considered to be a single speciesare common. cafer), considered by many authorities to represent the same species as the yellow-shafted because the two forms hybridize frequently. Other distinguishing features are face color: Red-shafted is grey, the Yellow-shafted is brown the nape of Red-shafted is grey and unpatterned, while a red crescent is present on the rear nape of the Yellow-shafted. Other articles where Red-shafted flicker is discussed: flicker: West (to Alaska) by the red-shafted flicker (C. Shafts of the Red-shafted Flicker are a mellow salmon-red shafts of the Yellow-shafted Flicker, soft daffodil yellow. It is the color of the shaft that designates the name of these birds.В The shaft, or quill, is the stiff, central rod down the center of a feather, from which the plumed part of the feather (the vane) extends. (Females of both have brown malars and are not a distinguishing feature.) Both birds have malars (mustaches) the malar of the Red-shafted looks like a stripe of candy-apple red paint that extends downward from the base of its bill, while the malar of Yellow-shafted male has the same pattern but is black. In flight, the Yellow-shafted has yellow edged wing feathers, while wing feathers of the Red-shafted have red edging. The two species are easily identified by distinguishing features. Eye-catching plumage has bold, black, scallop necklace under the nape, and numerous small scallops dotting breast and back plumage. Northern Flickers are large, brown woodpeckers with gentle expressions. The usual range of the Red-shafted Flicker is the western United States, while the range of the Yellow-shafted is the eastern U.S. The Red-shafted Flicker (Colaptes cafer)В is one of two subspecies of Northern Flickers the other subspecies is the Yellow-shafted Flicker (C. The Red-shafted Flicker is one of the few North American woodpeckers that is migratory, reaching its highest winter numbers in the northern Panhandle as it travels south to its wintering areas ().

It is a treat to host these intricately patterned birds when they pause on the high plains as they journey south to Mexico for the winter. Grabbing a copy of вЂњThe Audubon SocietyвЂ™s Field Guide to North American Birds, Western Region,вЂќ the dazzling bird was identified as a Red-Shafted Flicker. В© 2015 Tune In to Nature.What a thrill to look out onto a cold, brown, winter landscape and catch a glimpse of red flit by the window. Ward.Д«irdNoteвЂ™s theme music was composed and played by Nancy Rumbel and John Kessler. More information is at .Д¬all of the Northern Flicker provided by The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York.

TodayвЂ™s show is brought to you by White Flower Farm, a family-owned mail order nursery offering a wide range of perennials, annuals, and shrubs for spring planting. ItвЂ™s our good fortune that the delightful Northern Flicker is a common sight, whether Red-shafted, Yellow-shafted, or hybrid, from back yards to woods to canyons. Unwoodpeckerish in plumage, like a mourning dove in war paint, it flew dippingly, in typical woodpecker fashion, white rump flashing, from one ill-fitting identity to another.вЂќ вЂњI saw my first Northern Flicker and enjoyed its apparent confusion about what kind of bird it was. Novelist Jonathan FranzenвЂ™s first encounter with a flicker highlights its wonderful, anomalous appearance. The undersides of its wings and tail-feathers flash with coppery-red, giving the bird its western nickname вЂњRed-shafted Flicker.вЂќ YouвЂ™re likely to see a вЂњYellow-shaftedвЂќ on the Great Plains and in the East. Its breast sports a distinctive black patch. Where most woodpeckers are a reliable mix of black, white, and bits of red, the Northern Flicker is buffy tan overall. ItвЂ™s a woodpecker by affinityвЂ¦ вЂ¦but one that hardly looks the part. There it hangs by its feet from the suet feeder, a handsome bird a foot long. BirdNote В® Northern Flicker вЂ“ A Most Unlikely WoodpeckerДЄ sudden, bright flash of copper feathers signals a Northern FlickerвЂ™s swoop into the back yard.

Red shafted flicker