Unlike most other woodpeckers, Northern Flickers (Colaptes auratus) like to spend a lot of time on the ground, which makes it tough to get a clear shot of one. According to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology website, “Although it can climb up the trunks of trees and hammer on wood like other woodpeckers, the Northern Flicker prefers to find food on the ground. Ants are its main food, and the flicker digs in the dirt to find them. It uses its long barbed tongue to lap up the ants.”
When I spotted this male Northern Flicker—females don’t have the black mustache stripe—last weekend at Huntley Meadows Park, it was perched horizontally on a fallen tree, which gave me a clear view of its beautiful colors and patterns. Other woodpeckers, which are mostly black and white, seem drab by comparison. For the first time ever, I was also able to see the downward curve of its bill that I had seen described in birding identification guides.
This bird remained still for only a moment and then seemed to fade away into the background.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Mike Powell 
Mike, I love yr pix. I adore them. Thanks so very much!
Finally I can really SEE the birds.
XxxCVH
Thanks for your kind words, Cynthia. Most folks can’t afford to spend as much time as I do out in the wild observing nature, so I hope that my images give others a sense of the beauty that is present almost everywhere. I have found that I am now more attentive to my surroundings, even when I don’t have a camera in my hand.
A gorgeous image! Lovely light and composition. I don’t think I’ve seen a Flicker this clearly.
Thanks, Ellen. It is pretty unusual for me to get an uncluttered look at a flicker and the light and setting were real bonuses.
This is a gorgeous portrait. I like that the birds plumage is reflected in the tones and hues in the blurred background.
Thanks, Laura. I suspected that you, as an artist, would be drawn to the similarity in colors between the bird and the background. Birders are drawn immediately to the bird itself, but I am happy to that I was not alone in thinking about the setting of the bird when considering an image.
Hi Mike. Interesting what you said about the difficulty of taking a photo of a ground bird. I hadn’t thought of it before but I’ve had similar challenges with a Saddleback in NZ…a bird which bounds around the undergrowth and isn’t a strong flier. You’d think ones high up would be a greater challenge eh? 🙂