During this month of September, I saw my first yellow-shafted flicker. Along with the leaves changing colors, a yellow-shafted flicker sighting is an indication that fall is near. The yellow-shafted flicker is referred to as the northern flicker.

Its scientific name is Colaptes auratus. Colaptes comes from the Latin word kolapter, which means a hammer or a chisel and from the Greek word kolapto, which means to peck with a bill. The species name auratus is Latin and means gilded, ornamented with gold, in reference to the yellow linings of the bird’s wings and tail.

Auratus is now the species name for all three of the following similar species of North American flickers: gilded, red-shafted and yellow-shafted or northern flicker.

The common name of flicker apparently comes from the bird’s action of striking lightly, with a quick jerk of the bill, and the fluttering or flapping of its wings without flying.

Many years ago, I watched a yellow-shafted flicker dig ants from between the cracks in a sidewalk. The bird did not seem to pay any attention to me. After digging out the loose dirt, the bird stuck its tongue into the ground to lap up the small ants. While I was watching, a young lady stopped.

It was evident that she was curious as to what I was looking at, and I tried to explain to her what the woodpecker was doing. After telling her that ants were its favorite food, I mentioned that when one yellow-shafted flicker’s stomach was examined, it was found to contain over 5,000 ants.

After hearing this bit of information, she said oh and gave me a strange look. She walked away, stepping carefully over the dirt and ants that were crawling over the sidewalk.

I wondered if she thought me to be a little odd watching a bird catch ants.

The yellow-shafted flicker is the most colorful of all North American woodpeckers. It is the only woodpecker in Pennsylvania that is found on the ground. Forty-five percent of its diet consists of ants. After an ant hill is located, the woodpecker lands on the mound and scratches the dirt until the tunnel leading into the ant colony is opened. The bird will then insert its long tongue into the tunnel, and the ants, thinking it is a worm attacking their home, will grab hold of the tongue, which is over three inches long and sticky.

Once the ants are on the tongue, they cannot escape. Then it pops the tongue back in its mouth and feasts upon the ants. This process will continue until the woodpecker has had its fill of ants, with an entire colony being annihilated at times.

However, the yellow-shafted flickers also gather food just as other woodpeckers do, by drilling on the sides of trees and then removing insects and grubs. Insects are located by tapping on trees, and when a hollow spot is detected, drilling begins. Once an insect tunnel is broken, the flicker’s tongue, which has a barb on the end, is thrust into the tunnel, stabs an insect or grub and then pops the tongue back into its mouth. By drilling for insects, these birds create a lot of homes for other birds and wildlife.

The woodpecker also uses its stout bill in courtship. A prospective male will rap on tree trunks, telephone poles, down spouts, and anything else that will make noise enough to attract a female. Even after mating, the male and female will continue to communicate with each other by tapping on objects.

One would think the woodpecker would have headaches from hitting its head against a tree, often 100 times per minute and several hundred times a day. At a rapid speed, the bird’s head moves forward to hit the tree, much like running into a brick wall. I read somewhere that the bird closes its eyes when its head strikes the tree.

Wildlifers believe this is done so as not to get woodchips in its eyes. With tongue in cheek, one person said that perhaps the bird’s eyes close, so they do not pop out of its head. The hard beak is connected to the skull by a sponge-like-rubbery tissue, which absorbs the shock when hitting the tree.

The flicker can work on the sides of the trees because it has two toes that point forward and two toes that point backward, with claws that grasp the tree. It also has strong, pointed quills that extend beyond the tail feathers, which are used to prop the bird up when it is clinging to the side of the tree. If not for these stiff quills, the scraping on the trees would destroy the tail feathers, and in a short time, the bird would have no control while flying.

The quills will be replaced during the bird’s molt and no quill will be shed until a new one is fully developed.

In Alabama, the yellow-shafted flicker (yellow hammer) is the state bird. During the Civil War, one could always identify soldiers from Alabama because a feather from “old yellow hammer” would be worn in their hats. I’ll bet this bird is not mentioned as the northern flicker.

The male can be distinguished from the female by the appearance of a mustache at the base of its bill. Although not really a mustache, the feathers are black, giving the appearance of one.

The start of the yellow-shafted flickers’ fall migration is poorly defined, but usually evident along the mountain ridges from the second week of September to the second or third week of November. The peak of the fall migration occurs about the third week of September until the second week of October.

The yellow-shafted flickers return to our area in early March. The “whicker, whicker, whicker” mating call rings out along with the hammering on the trees. The female goes to the male and a nest site is selected. Both the male and the female will share the duties of building the nest, incubating the eggs and feeding of the young. At first, feeding is done by regurgitating, and later, the parents hide food under the bark of trees and the young are taught to hunt.

Although the flicker is one of our state’s most widespread species of woodpeckers, its numbers have been declining over the last 40 years. The reason for this decline is that the starlings will steal the flickers’ first and even second excavations for their own nest sites.

Bill Bower is a retired Pennsylvania Game Commission Wildlife Officer. Read his blog and listen to his podcasts on the outdoors at www.onemaningreen.com.