Saturday, June 24, 2017

Not so Plain Brown Birds

They don't usually garner as much attention as the Baltimore orioles, cardinals or goldfinches, but some of the less obviously colorful birds have their own charms.


The yellow-shafted flicker (I frequently call them My Friend, Flicker - I know, I'm strange...) has just a little splash of red on the back of the neck, but when it takes flight, the underside of its wings flash brilliant yellow-gold. I also love the heavily spotted breast - I'll try to get more pictures as the season progresses. I'm just glad that they seem to be nesting nearby.


The song sparrow doesn't seem very impressive, either, until it starts to sing. In the big field where Baloo and I walk frequently, they perch in the tops of small trees, bushes or wild grape vines and serenade. That's how I usually find them - I follow the sound of the song until I see the little rascals and try to snap a picture before they decide to move to another sound stage.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for sharing. Nice photo of the Flicker

Anonymous said...

I have a series of letterboxes that started as a single "My Friend Flicker"......they're one of my favorite birds

Anonymous said...

I saw a flicker in my yard one day taking a dirt bath, didn't know what it was at
that time and forgot about looking it up, glad you reminded me and also identified it!

Webfoot said...

Thanks for your comments. I'm sad to say that I missed a great opportunity to try and photograph a batch of newly fledged flicker babies chasing their parents around the field - it always seems to happen when I forget to take my camera along!