On a Friday afternoon in late June, a woman walked into Wild Birds Unlimited carrying a noisy, squawking cardboard box. Nicole took one look at the baby birds contained within and said "red-bellied woodpeckers."
"Really?" I queried. "They seem so large."
The babies had been left homeless when their dead tree was cut down by the power company. The workmen heard the racket and alerted the homeowner, who contacted Oatland Island Education Center. The folks there referred her to Pat Wolters, a local wildlife rehabilitator.
Following Pat's directions, the homeowner had the workmen cut out the section of tree with the nest, set it in a safe spot, and wait in the hope that the parents would return to feed the babies. When no parents appeared, she brought the birds to Wild Birds Unlimited to be placed with a skilled rehabber.
On Monday, I arrived at work to find that the large baby woodpeckers had revealed themselves to be not red-bellieds but Northern flickers. Their back feathers were coming in brown and tan, instead of black and white, and their chests sported distinctive black bibs.
At rest, flickers are a study in muted gray, black, brown and tan. In flight they reveal their true colors - beautiful yellow or red underwings and tail feathers. A gleaming white rump patch makes them easy to identify even at a distance.
"Yellow-shafted" birds sport a red chevron on the back of their necks, while the males of the "red-shafted" race have red mustaches but no chevron.
"Yellow-shafted" and "red-shafted" flickers were once considered separate species. Now, due to the tendency of the reds and yellows to mix and match where the two populations overlap in the Great Plains, they are considered color variants of the same species.
While red-bellied woodpeckers are regular bird-feeder patrons throughout the state, flickers keep a much lower profile - literally. They are commonly found hopping about on the ground in search of their favorite food - ants. Flickers probably eat more ants than any other bird species in North America. Their brown barred and speckled plumage allows them to blend into the leaf litter, where they use their extra-long, sticky tongue to lap up large quantities of ants. On examining the contents of one flicker stomach, scientists discovered that it contained nearly 5,000 ants.
Not only do flickers chow down on ants, they also use them in their grooming rituals. Squished ants contain formic acid, which is great for getting rid of those annoying feather mites.
At 12 1/2 inches long, flickers have a three-inch size advantage on their smaller red-bellied cousins. However, their carpentry skills are less developed, perhaps because flickers spend more time guzzling ants on the soft ground. When it comes time to choose a nest cavity, they go for a dead or dying tree where the wood is softer. It usually takes two weeks to carve out a suitable cavity 18 inches deep, with both sexes pitching in on the excavation.
Once the 5-8 eggs are laid, the couple continues their equal opportunity partnership. Both sit on the eggs, with Mr. Flicker usually pulling the night shift. He can be told from his mate by a stylish black mustache or "malar stripe." After the chicks hatch, both parents bring home the grub and regurgitate it for the kids.
The growing nestlings crowd at the entrance hole, competing to be first in the food line.
The flicker's name comes from one of its calls - "wick-a, wick-a, wick-a." Another call - a loud, laughing "kik, kik, kik, kik, kik" is similar to the raucous call of the pileated woodpecker. Through the years, flickers have been given an assortment of nicknames, including high-hole, walk-up, yawker bird, hairy wicket, and yellowhammer.
Alabama is the only state to list the flicker as its state bird. It has been known as the "Yellowhammer State" since the Civil War. Reports tell of a company of fresh young soldiers arriving in Kentucky wearing new uniforms adorned with bits of brilliant yellow cloth. They were greeted with shouts of "Flicker! Yellowhammer!"
The term quickly spread and all Alabama troops were soon referred to as "Yellowhammers." Confederate veterans in Alabama even took to wearing flicker feathers in their caps and lapels during reunions.
Hopefully, our three young "yellowhammers" will survive their traumatic episode to continue the ant-eating, wing-flashing, proud traditions of their flicker forbears!
E-mail birding columnist Diana Churchill at email@example.com.