Sparring Flickers

by Judi Dressler

Title

Sparring Flickers

Artist

Judi Dressler

Medium

Photograph - Photography

Description

These two male Northern Flickers were sparring due to a territorial dispute over females on the railing of my back deck. They had been staring each other down, with intermittent little head dances, beaks pointing up to the sky. And then suddenly they both flew into the air in a confrontational pose, and then disappeared in different directions. Courting season was starting, since it was early February, and both males wanted the territory, but I had only seen one of them in recent weeks; the other seemed to me to be an intruder.

It was a lucky photo. I had gone into the kitchen for a cup of coffee when I saw them at it, so I grabbed my camera just in time! The shot was taken through my kitchen window.

From Audubon's website: "This brown woodpecker flashes bright colors under the wings and tail when it flies. Its ringing calls and short bursts of drumming can be heard in spring almost throughout North America. Two very different-looking forms -- Yellow-shafted Flicker in the east and north, and Red-shafted Flicker in the west -- were once considered separate species. They interbreed wherever their ranges come in contact. On the western Great Plains, there is a broad zone where all the flickers are intergrades between Red-shafted and Yellow-shafted."

Photo taken on February 12, 2014, in Louisville, Colorado

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This photo won the people's choice award through Audubon's 2015-2016 Droll Yankees Birdspotter Contest; see http://feederwatch.org/birdspotter2015/#35210

Won 1st Place in FAA's TWO ANIMALS contest, on 11/22/2021

Tied for 3rd place in FAA's WOODPECKER contest on 9/14/2020

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Descriptive keywords and tags for this image include flickers, northern flickers, woodpeckers, male, fighting, confronting, flying, sparring, territorial, orange, wings, red spots, red shafted, birds, spring, mating, courting, breeding, colaptes auratus, colaptes, colorado, avian, aves, wild, wildlife, winter, back yard, photo, photography, photograph, judi dressler, and dressler.

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February 15th, 2018

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