240 Birds of Colorado 



Habits. — ^The Flicker is one of the most familiar birds 

 in Colorado. It is commonly seen in the suburban 

 portions of the towns, often, unlike other Woodpeckers, 

 perched crossways, and flying from tree to tree with its 

 characteristic undulating line, which displays its white 

 rump and a flash of red from under the wings. They 

 are equally at home in open country far from trees, 

 in the cotton- woods along the streams, or in the pine 

 timber of the mountains. The cry is a clear ringing 

 " Piute," and a harsh and rather shrill chuckle is very 

 characteristic. 



The bill of the Flicker is not so strong as that of other 

 Woodpeckers, and they do not " drum "on the tree-trunks 

 nearly so often. They get their food on the ground 

 to a great extent, often digging in pastures for worms 

 and grubs and feeding largely on ants. They occasion- 

 ally catch insects on the wing, and are fond of berries 

 and small fruits as well as insects. 



The Flicker is no great excavator ; it uses by preference 

 natural cavities or else chooses decayed trees for its 

 nest-site ; it will make use of almost any tree available, 

 and sometimes selects telegraph posts or buildings, or 

 even a hayrick ; where there are no trees it occasionally 

 makes a burrow in a bank. Gale sometimes witnessed 

 a battle royal between the Flicker and the Screech Owl, 

 for the possession of a desirable site ; and old Flicker - 

 holes are used by many other birds. The eggs, usually 

 seven in number, are laid at the bottom of the cavity, 

 on the wood chips ; occasionally many more eggs have 

 been found, but in these cases they have probably been 

 deposited by more than one female. The eggs are pure 

 white and average 1*12 x '85. Gale found fresh eggs 

 from May 5th to June 5th at 5,500 feet, and after June 

 5th at 9,000 feet. On one occasion he found two nests 



