Took a quick walk along the American Tobacco Trail yesterday morning to see if I could find any Woodpeckers and was not disappointed!
Check out this handsome male Northern Flicker that I spotted perched on top of a rotted tree. With those jet black spots and that bold dash of red on his nape, isn’t he a great looking bird?

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Usually Northern Flickers are found on the ground where they will run a few steps and stop, run a few more steps and stop, until they find an anthill. Ants are their most important source of food.

They also eat a variety of other insects and wild fruit, especially wild cherries, dogwood, sumac and poison ivy.
You can attract them to your yard by offering raisins, peanut butter and black oil sunflower seeds at feeder stations. Of course they will visit your suet cages too!
Photos by @sally_siko of @birdwatching_nc on the @canonusa #5ds