Our Northern Flickers

In our backyard I have several bird feeders hanging from an arbor where a wisteria grows. One feeder contains assorted bird seed, two have sunflower seeds and one has suet. The suet attracts Northern Flickers, a variety of woodpecker, but they are very cautious birds. One will land on the arbor and another might land on a nearby fence. Both will look this way and that for several minutes until they are convinced there are no predators nearby then the one on the arbor will hop down onto the suet feeder while the other keeps a sharp eye out. Even while feeding they will pause frequently to check the surroundings.

Several years ago my brother Harry gave me a birdhouse made from some old growth cedar he had salvaged from the woods near their house. It was a beauty with three holes leading into the nests, a small nail for the birds to perch on while entering and each hole had a horseshoe around it. I hung it from the edge of the shop roof on the far side of the arbor.

A nice multi-level birdhouse

I'm not sure if I have it in a bad spot or it it just wasn't attractive to the kind of birds we have but we never had birds nest there. Over the years the little nails rusted off but the horseshoes acquired a nice rusty patina and some moss grew on the little roof. It looked pretty attractive to me so I don't know why birds never moved in.

A couple weeks ago I saw a pair of flickers checking out the nesting box. The male would fly in, hang on the front of the box and peck at the holes a little, then fly off. Next time I looked the female would be there pecking at the holes. They both were a little tentative but over a few days they made a little progress on all three of the holes.

Finally I saw that the female had chosen the bottom hole and was busy enlarging the entrance. She worked pretty steady and in a few more days had enlarged the hole and climbed in several times.

Hole enlarged to woodpecker size

As I mentioned Flickers are very cautious so I haven't been able to get a picture of one actually at work. I can follow their activities from the kitchen window, about thirty feet away, but as soon as their is any kind of strange movement in the backyard they are gone.

So now the question is, will they actually nest in their chosen spot. I'm surprised that they have gotten this far but even in the city there are birds and animals that make themselves right at home. But will they actually nest?

Tune in next week and I'll try to post a picture of the female's head poking out of the newly enlarged hole.