Northern Flicker - Ladner Harbour Park, BC
This is one of the birds I get asked about the most, being the bird nerd that I am. It is funny how one of the most commonly seen birds in North America is one of the most common surprises for being so beautiful. Northern Flickers are part of the woodpecker family but do tend to spend a good deal of time on the ground looking for insects in the grass. I am old enough to remember when this species was split in two with a Red-shafted and a Yellow-shafted flavor. Today they are lumped together as a Northern Flicker. We also have a Guilded Flicker in the southwest United States.