Flicker Behavior

This happened last month for nearly the entire month. I am curious. Here are two female northern flickers and they are facing off. They stare at each other head on, then sideways until one moves. As soon as the other moves, the second goes after her. They face off again or somersault and dive through the trees. Normally, flickers are respectful of other birds, but these two did not care. The huge crows here had to get out of the way for these two. If one mounted on a suet feeder, she had about 5 seconds till the other girl moved her off. Sometimes, they had a truce and would eat at the same time on two different feeders. Otherwise, it was on. They even did a dive roll under my husband's chin trying to get at each other. Has anyone ever seen this? Are they fighting for food or a male? I believe a male has already established himself here - he mows at our chimney enough :P

Oh how funny Moogle! I've never seen more than 1 Flicker at a time but I know my Red-bellieds will not allow another in the yard while there feeding or getting ready to.
Nice pic!

I have seen 3 at a time but nothing like that...very nice pic!

I could understand two males facing-off but two females???? Not sure why they would do that. Interesting

I agree. They were comical to watch. Their battle escalated until they would stare each other down for up to 10 min straight just before their show of unbelievable acrobatics. I was sure they would crash somewhere. Now only one female and male feed at the feeder.

Thank you for the replies!

I watched 3 red-bellied several weeks ago flinging themselves throughout a cemetery with tall evergreens. I'd guess showing off to possible mates, and/or establishing territory. Cool picture moogle.

What's happening with your Flickers, Moogle Tree? Fascinating behaviour you observed and wonderfully described.

Thank you! I am very very sorry I didn't reply sooner.
MargaretK, I don't know if I have two couples now or not. I know I have an established pair. The pictures below show the female feeding her baby.

This picture (I guess this is the baby) is when they were tanning. I didn't know that at first. That morning, I was trying to figure out how best to accomodate flickers (yard changing and where to put the suet) and I found two sprawled out on the lawn. Let's just say, my soul let out a deathly scream when I thought I saw two flickers dead on my grass. lol. I waited, holding my breath, till one of them moved - which took at least a minute!

Classic sunbathing posture there!

Resin

The grass got taken out and so we had a yard full of soil. Four flickers were bathing in it! I thought I took a pic of them, but I can't find it. My dh's dad has been watching birds for a long time, but he has never seen flickers taking a dirt bath. It was amazing to watch. I don't know if we have two couples or the established couple had two children. Here is a pic of the mum and ... well, I thought baby, but the mustache is maybe too bright for a baby? Or maybe it's the dad and a kid? I'm not good at telling yet :)

http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/Northern_Flicker.html

Your last pic has the adult male red shafted form on the left. I can't tell if the one on the right is a female or juvenile.

The pics are very nice! I've been hearing mine more frequently.

This message was edited Oct 3, 2008 6:08 PM

I've been hearing mine too, and when I wandered around the yard, I caught them digging out an ant mound. They dug through the feeder roots of an oak tree in my gravely yard and seem to have eaten most, if not all of a nest of large reddish ants. I'm astounded that they were able to move the rocks out through the roots. Very determined birdies!