Male Northern Flicker

I'm a bird nerd, and I love watching birds in my city. I'm also a photography nerd. The two go well together.

Of course, bird photography has its serious challenges. Birds move fast and aren't easy to approach. And living in a place where it's sunny one minute and cloudy the next, I constantly have to change up my camera's settings to avoid over/under-exposure. But by some great fortune, when I came across this male Flicker eating ants off of someone's walkway, everything was perfect.

I used a bush of yellow flowers as a "blind" to crouch behind to take the photos. I like how they compliment the male's rich colors.

He kept an eye on me, but continued to eat for almost a minute while I took pictures.

I've been wanting to get a picture of the male Flicker for a while now, because I love their bright red mustaches. I can't believe I was so lucky!

(This photo is my entry to the #smap contest)

Shot with Nikon D7500 at 1/400 sec. f/6.3 300mm. Edited in Apple Photo Editor.

I hope you've enjoyed my entry to this week's #smap contest in Feathered Friends! I have two other blogs about Flickers if you are interested:
The Ant-Hunting Flicker
Northern Flicker Nest
If you like birds, please follow me and join the Feathered Friends community!