Flicker

This is a female Northern Flicker (Colaptes auratus). It was just off our driveway this morning and I took the shot through a window.

It's the only member of the woodpecker family that regularly feeds on the ground, sometimes probing into the soil (as here--note the bits of dirt still on the beak). This is the yellow-shafted subspecies (which resides in Eastern North America)--a yellow shaft under the wing is just visible here. As a female it lacks the male's black malar strip under the chin

The red-shafted species in found in the west--this blip from Arizona shows a male, distinguished by a bright red malar stripe (its red shafts are not visible).

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