Northern Flicker

This is a picture of one of our local bird species, a Northern Flicker, Colaptes auratus. This is the yellow shafted variety. I took this picture in our back yard in September. These birds are really cool. They eat anys and they pick up ants and rub themselves with them to clean themselves. Also the formic acid in ants helps to remove parasites. After all the bleak fall pictures I just posted, I had to throw in a little color.