Size and Shape

• Flickers are large, about 12.5 inches in length with a 20-inch wingspan. Body shape is similar to other woodpeckers.
  
  

Color and Markings

• Red nape of yellow shafted flicker.
  
  Plumage is light brown overall, patterned with black spots and bars. The undersides of wings are yellow (eastern) or red (western), and both have a large white rump patch. Males have a distinctive malar stripe or "moustache" under the eyes that is red in western birds and black in eastern birds. Eastern birds have a red crescent on the nape.
  
  

Behavior

• Unlike most woodpeckers, flickers spend much time on the ground and perched upright on horizontal branches, though they do climb trunks and hammer like other woodpeckers.
  
  

Diet

• Flickers drill holes in the ground for insects, and forage in leaf litter for ants and beetles. Their winter diet consists of berries, seeds and fruit.
  
  

Habitat and Nesting

• Flickers prefer open woods and treed fields. Young are raised in nest cavities, 6 to 16 feet from the ground.