As I put the trash out for pick-up tonight, I saw a pair of woodpeckers in the back alley by my house. I’m sure they are the same ones that sometimes come and sit in the tall Douglas fir tree in my yard. I ran to get my camera for a few pictures.
This is the male of the woodpecker called a northern flicker (Colaptes auratus). The red whisker coloring is called ‘red-shafted’ and is the coloring of the birds out West here in the United States. The ones East have black whiskers with red on the nape of the neck.Here is the female. She pecked at the crack in the paving in the back alley, trying to unearth a bug or a worm that might be hiding there.
