.Nothern Flickers are native to most of North America, parts of Central America, Cuba, and the Cayman Islands. Flickers are one of the Woodpeckers who are frequent visitors to my feeders here in Wisconsin during the winter, and in summer I see them on the ground in the grassy areas around the house.
They can climb up the trunks of trees and hammer on wood like other woodpeckers, but these birds prefer to eat ants and dig in the dirt to find them. It has a long barbed tongue to lap up the insects it finds
To communicate and defend their territory they drum on objects to make as much noise as possible. Sometimes they hammer on metal objects and can be rather annoying! One year I had one that found the metal cap on my fireplace chimney to his liking and I woke up each morning to the noise echoing through my house. Thankfully he only kept at it for a couple weeks!
