One of my favourite signs that spring has sprung is the arrival of the Northern Flicker (Colaptes auratus) to my property. This mid-sized woodpecker is not everyone’s favourite, especially if they live in a log home, but I love seeing them, their spectacular colour scheme which includes showy almost cape like red underwings and hearing their loud shrill call or strong knocking to attract a mate. As with a lot of bird species, the males (seen here) are a little more colourful than the females, which do not have the red ‘moustache’ either side of the beak, but they are nonetheless still quite pretty. Over on the Eastern side of North America, the northern flicker has yellow under the wings instead of the scarlet red of its western counterpart and it has a black moustache.
