One of the most attractive and fascinating birds to visit our feeders is the Northern flicker. They’re big and handsomely marked. When a flicker lands on the feeder, it gets your immediate attention.

As the sparkling, golden days of October pass, so do migrating birds winging their way south to warmer wintering grounds. Our feeders are back up swaying in the cool breeze. Down from higheraltitude ...

“The red-shafted flicker is so well-known that any detailed description of its plumage or habits seems superfluous,” wrote Willard Ayres Eliot in his 1923 book, “Birds of the Pacific Coast.” And so it ...