Monday, April 25, 2011

Calling All Bird Lovers

Last week, we had a surprise guest arrive in our humble East York backyard. It had the size of a pigeon, but it looked almost like a Downy Woodpecker due to the red marking on its head. It was pecking away at a dirt patch where raccoons had attacked our grass. Sigh! Does anyone know what this bird is? Sorry about the terrible film quality. I took the pictures through a dirty screen window.
Cheers,
Erin


4 comments:

  1. Northern Flicker, female probably. This is confirmed at first glance by my grade 5 dd who just finished her research and public speaking project on Woodpeckers.

    Did you know the Northern Flicker is the most common woodpecker in North America?

    http://identify.whatbird.com/obj/181/_/Northern_Flicker.aspx

    Follow the link and listen to the bird sounds. Very cool.

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  2. My Audubon Society field guide calls it "common flicker" and states that is the only North American woodpecker that commonly feeds on the ground - your bird like to eat ants and beetle larvae, the guides goes on to say.

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  3. The Flicker is our friend! Skunks make an awful mess on the yard but the Flicker just turns up little butts which aerates the yard.

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  4. Thanks so much for this, ladies. I'm thrilled to add a new bird to my list of experiences. I love that children are teaching us about things.
    My son and I looked up Northern Flicker in our big book of birds and that's definitely the feathered bird that showed up in our yard. It hasn't been back since. We saw a Great Blue Heron at Riverdale Farm today. I LOVE BIRDS!
    Erin

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I'm a slightly off-beat Toronto-area teacher who enjoys writing and photography. I come from a family of collectors and now I'm dragging my own family around to yard sales. It's just a bit of fun. Enjoy the scenes.