The call of a herring-gull chick begging for food makes soft the selfish appetites of the adults. This morning, I watched a common flicker hunting insects along an edge of a patch of rugosa roses. It ...

The common flicker here is yellow-shafted. This refers to the feathers on the underside of the wings, the so-called shafts. Birds from farther west have red shafts.

In 1973, the American Ornithological Union (AOU) lumped them all into a single species: the Common Flicker. No matter whether the bird had red, yellow or orange underwings, black or red mustachios, ...

Q:The day after the big storm (Jan. 11) we had at our feeder one common flicker. Also in mid-January we saw a pair of big black birds soaring. We only got a look at them for a few seconds. Could they ...