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Eastern Flicker (Colaptes auratus) 
By Anna C. Ames 
The Flicker, state bird of Alabama, is the largest of our common wood- 
peckers and probably the best known, as it spends much time on the ground. 
Most woodpeckers are largely black and white, but flickers are brown 
and white. They also differ from most of their relatives in having sharp- 
pointed, slightly curved bills instead of straight and chisel-like ones. The 
white rump is conspicuous in flight, as are the yellow wing linings. A black 
crescent extends across the breast, and there is a red patch on the nape. 
Below the black crescent, the underparts are white, with numerous large 
black spots. The male has black whiskers. Stiff, spiny tails serve as props as 
the birds hitch their way up trees. The flicker has a foot adapted for tree 
climbing, with two toes in front and two behind. The Yellow-shafted 
Flicker attracts widespread attention and as a result “is credited with 
having more than a hundred common names, most of them arising from 
some prominent characteristic.” (Lemmon). The bird can hardly be said 
to have a song, but it utters loud cries from time to time, including the 
piercing “flickering” call from which it derives its official name. Its wick 
wick, wick has been termed a prolonged laugh. Its notes are klee-yer and 
flick-a, flick-a. Yarrup, yarrup he calls in flight. To his mate he says yucker, 
yucker. 
Flickers are noisy birds. In addition to their many loud notes, they 
frequently drum on a resonant limb, tin roof, or inside the nest cavities. 
This “is an essential part of the call to courtship or mating,” but is often 
used otherwise. 
The courtship of the flicker has been termed “notorious.” Bent says: 
“The courtship of the Flicker is a lively and spectacular performance, noisy, 
full of action, and often ludicrous, as three or more birds of both sexes 
indulge in their comical dancing, nodding, bowing and swaying motions, 
or chase each other around the trunk or through the branches of a tree.” 
The female takes the initiative. I once saw two flickers facing each other, 
high on a limb of a tree, with wings open and tails spread. They bowed to 
each other repeatedly, to the right and then to the left. Evidently mated, 
they flew away together. 
Flickers sometimes use a ready-made hole or a bird box for their nest- 
nig site, but they usually nest in holes that they themselves excavate in 
trees living or dead, in poles, posts, stumps, etc. Males and females share in 
the work of digging a hole, located from five to ninety feet high, about a 
foot deep, with a three-inch entrance at the top. The five to ten plain, 
glossy white eggs are laid on chips at the bottom of the hole. 
The parents share in the 11 to 12 days of incubation. The one on the 
nest is fed by the other. They seem very affectionate, continuing their 
wooing antics during the brooding season, and sharing in the care of the 
young. I once found the nesting stump of a pair of Flickers and heard the 
loud buzzing of the young within when I tapped on the stump. One flicker, 
whose eggs were removed, laid 71 eggs in 72 days. The young are hatched 
