Saturday, March 06, 2010

Giving Betty the Bird



I think this is Betty's bird. Somewhere I have a bird book, but my books are stacked all over the house since I moved the shelves out of the back room and I can not find this book. I found this on Wekepedia. It is a Northern Flicker. There are Yellow-Shafted Flickers and Red- Shafted Flickers. Betty's picture taking abilities are so lacking that it is impossible to find any colors on her photo other than faded brown and gray. What puzzeled me about the photo, was that the bird looked like a woodpecker, but was on the ground. Here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Flicker
the article says:
  • According to the Audubon guide, "flickers are the only woodpeckers that frequently feed on the ground", probing with their beak, also sometimes catching insects in flight. Although they eat fruits, berries, seeds and nuts, their primary food is insects. Ants alone can make up 45% of their diet. They have a behavior called anting, during which they use the acid from the ants to assist in preening, as it is useful in keeping them free of parasites.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Fleta...you nailed it. The flickers will probably be here in a couple of weeks. They migrate through here and sometimes you can look out in the back yard as see as many as 10