Northern Flicker

 

Since it was only in my last post that I mentioned it, I´m sure you remember that the Cuban Pygmy Owl is so small that it actually likes to seek shelter in abandoned woodpecker holes.

Which is why I felt compelled to paint a Northern Flicker – that, and I really wanted to use some of my lovely yellow paints. 😉

The Northern Flicker – yellowhammer, clape, gaffer woodpecker, harry-wicket, heigh-ho (this is definitely my favorite! 😉 ), wake-up, walk-up, wick-up, yarrup, and gawker bird as it is also often called – is one of the few woodpecker species that migrate.

Their breeding habitat consists of forested areas across North America and as far south as Central America.

As well as eating ants, flickers exhibit a behavior known as anting, in which they use the formic acid from the ants to assist in preening, as it is useful in keeping them free of parasites.

My watercolor painting shows you a yellow-shafted flicker (Colaptes auratus auratus) –  Colaptes comes from the Greek verb colapt, meaning “to peck”; auratus is from the Latin root aurat, meaning “gold” or “golden”, and refers to the bird’s underwing.

 

 

Northern Flicker (water color on paper; march 2018)

 

 

Do you see many flickers in the area you live? Let me know what you think about them in your comments! (noisy, beautiful, a real nightmare… 😉