FEATHERY FRIDAY # 13

FEATHERY FRIDAY# 13

Happy Feathery Friday! Who loves woodpeckers? We do! We have a very different and special woodpecker for you today! To find this little bird, you must look down and not up! Are you ready to meet them?

MEET THE NORTHERN FLICKER!

Range/Habitat: North-Central America/ woodlands, yards, parks

Diet: Herbivore: ants, insects and berries

Length/Weight: 30-35 cm/100-175 g

Conservation Status: Common

Fun Facts:

• Northern Flickers are members of the woodpecker family.
• They have long slightly curved bills that they use to get their favorite food item- ants!
• Northern flickers often feed on the ground, drilling into the ground to find ants.
• They have long tongues to help them get insects from the ground.
• Both male and female Northern flickers take care of the eggs and chicks.
• In the eastern part of their range they have yellow bottoms and in the west they have red bottoms.

Nothern Flickers are really neat woodpeckers! We love that instead of pecking into trees for food they peck into the ground! Each animal finds its own niche in the food chain! What would happen if birds all ate the same food? They would run out! So they each have their own way of finding and eating tasty things like ants!

Here’s what they sound like!

http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Northern_flicker/sounds