The Ant-hunting Flicker

The other morning I was out birding and came across this female flicker on the ground, sticking her bill onto the cracks in the sidewalk. I decided to snap some shots of her so I could learn more about what she was doing.

Crow was pretty sure I meant to take a picture of him, since crows are my primary photo subject.

Once the photobomber hopped out of the way, I was able to creep a little closer and get some shots of her plucking ants out of the earth between the concrete slabs.

It looked like they were crawling all over her.

Foraging birds have so much to keep track of, what with collecting food that moves and runs away…

Keeping an eye on potential ground predators like me and my dog…

And keeping an eye on predators in the sky.

But the flicker population in Portland isn’t suffering, so they must be doing all right.

I have another blog about flickers and their urban nesting habits if you would like to know more about these pretty birds.

Thanks for being a bird nerd with me!