Backyard Birding - The Gilded Flicker

One of my original inspirations for the "Mike in the Wild" blog was to have a vehicle by which I could easily share photos with friends. Since my favorite subjects were birds and nature, I came up with a name that captured the essence of my material - an individual and his personal experience in the outdoors. While I've been fortunate to visit numerous parks and wilderness areas, I'm always amazed at how much my backyard and the view outside my window remind me I'm already in the wild.

To that point, just this week, I heard the tell-tale piercing caw of a flicker outside a sliding glass door while I busily typed on the computer. Not the first time to hear it, I knew I wouldn't be disappointed in getting my camera. Sure enough, when I peered out the window I saw a gilded flicker - this time a female - eyeing my yard's hummingbird feeder from a nearby hanging lamp. She's a type of woodpecker and the largest bird in the neighborhood, so when she finally leaped to the feeder her force made it swing like a clock's pendulum. Nonetheless, she clutched it tightly with her tree-hugging toes and started her pursuit of the sugar water inside.

I was doubtful she could retrieve the nectar, as her bill is quite large and thick - a powerful tool that bores into trees to hunt insects and drink sap. But she kept poking at the tiny holes that are designed for the minuscule beaks of a hummingbird, a bird more than fifty times smaller than the gargantuan flicker. I was able to approach the window quite closely, and snapped several photos from eight feet away. When I got brave and cracked the door to get a glass-free shot, the gilded flicker flew away.

Only after studying the pictures did I discover why the woodpecker so determinedly pecked at the tiny hole with her huge beak - her slender tongue was able to easily sip the sugar water in the same way it slurps a tree's sap and picks up insects.

Below are several pictures from a couple gilded flickers, both male and female, visiting my backyard hummingbird feeder. They are big, noisy birds that call both the Arizona desert and - lucky for me - my backyard as home.