Bills V

The Northern Flicker (Colaptes auratus) is a woodpecker who often forages on the ground, digging and poking for ants and beetles and those ever gooey larvae. This particular bill appears to have some dirt on it from poking into Green-Wood last fall.

This species is found across the U.S., but western birds have red-shafted feathers, lack the red on the nape, and have a red malar mark on their gray face/throat. Our Eastern birds are yellow-shafted — you can see one of those on the right wing here, but most especially when they fly, the undersides of the wings flashing yellow — and the malar is black on their brown face/throat.