What Is the Brown Woodpecker Hopping Around on My Lawn? Identifying the Northern Flicker

You glance out at the yard and there is a large, handsome brown bird hopping around on the grass — not at the feeder, not on a tree trunk, but out in the open, jabbing its bill into the lawn. When it finally flushes, it flashes a startling white patch on its rump and a flush of color under the wings, and flies off in a deep, bounding roller-coaster path. That ground-feeding oddity is a northern flicker (Colaptes auratus), one of the most common and most surprising woodpeckers in North America. In fall, flickers become especially noticeable as they move around and turn up in yards, and their habit of feeding on the ground throws a lot of people who expect a woodpecker to be pecking wood. Here is how to know one when you see it.

The Woodpecker That Feeds on the Ground

The flicker’s biggest identification clue is its behavior. Unlike downy, hairy, and red-bellied woodpeckers that spend their time hitching up tree trunks, the northern flicker does most of its foraging on the ground — and its favorite food is ants. Flickers eat more ants than any other bird in North America, using a long, slightly curved bill to dig into soil and anthills and a long, sticky tongue to lap them up. So a big brownish bird methodically working a lawn, a trail edge, or a patch of bare dirt is doing exactly what a flicker is supposed to do. They will also perch on trunks and branches like a normal woodpecker, and they drum on wood (and sometimes on gutters and chimney caps) in spring, but the ground-feeding habit is the giveaway.

What to Look For

Flickers are big — noticeably larger than a robin, close to a foot long — and beautifully marked once you get past the plain first impression:

• A soft brown back closely barred with black, and a pale, buffy chest and belly heavily covered in bold black polka dots
• A black crescent "bib" across the upper chest, like a necklace
• A gray or brown head with a plain face and, in the eastern form, a small red crescent on the back of the head
• A bright white rump patch that flashes obviously the instant the bird flies away — often the first thing you notice
• A bounding, undulating flight, rising and falling in deep swoops rather than flying in a straight line

The flash of color under the wings and tail depends on where you are. Across the eastern half of the continent you get the "yellow-shafted" form, whose wing and tail feathers glow lemon-yellow underneath; across the West you get the "red-shafted" form, with salmon-red under the wings. It is the same species in two flavors, and where their ranges overlap on the Great Plains the two forms interbreed and show a mix of both colors.

Quick field call: a robin-plus-sized brown, black-spotted bird feeding on the ground that flushes to show a bright white rump and a burst of yellow or red under the wings, flying off in deep swooping bounds, is a northern flicker.

Why You Notice Them in Fall

Flickers are around all year in much of the country, but fall is when they become conspicuous. Northern-breeding flickers migrate south in September and October — often by day, and sometimes in loose groups — so more birds are on the move and passing through yards and woodland edges. They are also fueling up before and during migration, which means more time spent out in the open digging for ants and, later in the season, switching to fall fruits and berries like dogwood, sumac, and wild grape. If a brown woodpecker suddenly seems to be everywhere in October, you are watching migration in action.

Telling It From Similar Birds

A few birds get confused with flickers, but the differences are clear once you know them:

• American robin: also feeds on lawns and is a similar size, but a robin has a plain rusty-orange breast with no spots, no black bib, and no white rump flash — and it runs-and-stops rather than digging
• Other woodpeckers: downy, hairy, red-bellied, and pileated woodpeckers are boldly black-and-white (or black with red), cling to trunks, and lack the brown, polka-dotted body and white rump
• Northern mockingbird: gray, not brown, with white wing patches in flight rather than a white rump, and it does not dig for ants

Watched a big spotted bird digging in your yard and want to be sure it is a flicker and not something else? Snap a photo — even a quick one catching that white rump as it flies — and let Spotter help you put a name to it, and to the other backyard birds passing through this fall.