The Northern Flicker is a large, distinctive woodpecker that spends most of its time foraging on the ground, unlike its tree-climbing relatives. This bird is easily recognized by the flash of its colored wing linings and a prominent white rump patch during its undulating flight. Attracting Northern Flickers involves understanding their unique ecological needs, focusing on their specialized diet, providing appropriate nesting structures, and committing to long-term habitat management.
Catering to the Northern Flicker’s Unique Diet
Northern Flickers’ diets are highly specialized, centered primarily on insects found on the ground, unlike typical woodpeckers. Ants constitute a significant portion of their food intake, sometimes making up as much as 45% of their diet. The flicker uses its specialized, two-inch-long barbed tongue, coated in sticky saliva, to probe into ant colonies and retrieve the insects.
To encourage natural foraging, minimize manicured turf and allow areas of your lawn to remain undisturbed. This approach supports a healthy population of ground insects, including the ants flickers prefer. The use of pesticides is strongly discouraged because it removes the flicker’s main food source and can contaminate the insects.
You can offer supplemental food, especially during colder months when insects are less available. Flickers readily accept suet, often preferring it placed in a ground feeder or low on a post, mimicking their natural foraging height. Look for suet mixes that incorporate dried insects or mealworms, which align better with their preferences than simple seed mixes. Flickers also consume fruits and berries in the winter. Planting native shrubs that retain fruit, such as sumac, dogwood, or hackberry, provides a sustained natural food source.
Creating Essential Habitat and Nesting Sites
Northern Flickers are cavity nesters, and providing appropriate nesting opportunities encourages them to establish residence. They readily excavate their own nest holes in dead trees (snags) or in trees with heart rot that softens the wood. Maintaining a standing snag or an old, large tree on your property offers an ideal natural nesting environment.
If a natural snag is not feasible, specialized flicker nest boxes can be installed, as flickers rarely use smaller songbird boxes. These boxes should have a floor area around 7 by 7 inches and a depth of 16 to 24 inches. The entrance hole must be precisely 2.5 inches in diameter, which is large enough for the flicker but helps exclude aggressive competitors like European Starlings.
Flickers prefer to excavate their own space, even within a pre-built box, as this behavior is part of their mating ritual. Therefore, the nest box must be completely filled with wood shavings or coarse wood chips to simulate a soft tree core. The box should be mounted on a living tree or pole between 10 and 30 feet off the ground. Angling the box slightly forward assists the young in climbing out when they are ready to fledge. Providing a shallow, ground-level bird bath is also beneficial and can be a consistent draw for foraging birds.
Long-Term Maintenance for Flicker Attraction
Sustaining a flicker-friendly environment requires ongoing maintenance focused on protecting their food supply and nesting sites. The most important long-term practice is eliminating or severely restricting the use of chemical pesticides and herbicides. These chemicals directly remove the ground-dwelling insects, such as ants and beetles, that form the base of the flicker’s diet.
Protecting the nest box from predators and competitors is another ongoing task. To deter mammalian predators like raccoons and squirrels, mount the box on a pole equipped with a cone or stovepipe baffle. Place the baffle at least 10 feet from the nearest tree a squirrel could jump from. Competition from European Starlings, an invasive species, is an issue because they aggressively take over flicker nest cavities.
A successful strategy for managing starling competition is to use a trap box system or to monitor the box closely. Replace the wood chips annually by early spring, before the flickers begin nesting. Observing the seasonal patterns of flickers allows you to adjust your feeding and habitat efforts for maximum effectiveness.