Evening star., 1945-04-26
This. and That
By Charles E. TraceUeH
CHEVY CHASE, Nd.

Dear sir:
There. was large bird pecking on
the downspout of our house the other
morning. He made such a racket that
at flrst I could not conceive what It
could be, but soon caught sight of the
rascal,
He was large, I should say almost
a foot long. brown on the back, with
red patch on the back of head and
neck There was sort of crescent
Of black on the front of his neck.
i suppose he was some sort of wood
pecker, but he did not have the banded
appearance OF the downy woodpecker, or
tne halry Woodpecker, with both Of
which I am familiar.
II you could name this bird for me,
would appreciate it very much.
Yours truly, r. D. H."
Our correspondents bird was the
flicker, sometimes called the golden
winged woodpecker.
Many regard him as the most inter-
estlng of the woodpeckers.
The gold is seen when he flies, notably
in the bright yellow undersides of the
wings.
He has many popular names. a few
OF them being clape, pigeon woodpecker,
yellow hammer, high hole, high holder,
yarrup, wake up wood pigeon, heigh no,
wick up, yawker, wicket, walk up etc
Few birds have so many popular
names as this. They come from his
coloration, his cries, his habit of nest
ing high and from other peculiarities,
He is friendly creature, and large
enough SO that even hawks accept him
on terms of good will.
He is helpful bird, a great con-
sumer of insects. He eats some grain
and fruit, but not enough to do any
harm.
One taste of his always interests
the city and suburban dweller inter-
ested in lawn making. Nothing makes
a good lawn look worse than ant hills,
and that is where the big flicker
comes in.
He loves to eat ants, and knows
just how to go after them, both in
their hills and in cracks in concrete
pavements.
He sticks in that long bill, and darts
out a barbed tongue. This tongue is
covered with a slightly sticky secretion
which catches and holds the ants.
We have seen f1ickers spend hours
going after ants. They are great tree
sanitarians, taking ants and various
other inimical things from crevices in
the bark of the trunks.
All in all, this Is pleasant and USE
full bird to have around
He may be attracted by building
a house for him. But he is not handi-
capped by any lack of a man-made
house. He likes to dig out his own hole,
and If no place can be found, the
mother bird will lay her eggs on the
ground
A flicker house should be made ac-
cording to the following dimensions:
Floor of box, 7 by inches; depth
of box, 16 to 18 inches; diameter of
holes inches; hole above floor, IA to
16 inches: best height above ground
8 to 20 feet.
The entrance hole is placed so that
the top of it Is about 2 inches below
the top of the box.
It is said to be good thing to sprinkle
q handful of sawdust or shavings inside
the box. This seems to make the birds
feel at home.
The persistent drumming on metal
sometimes INDUCED in by the flicker
Is believed to be sort of love call.
A flicker once flew down to garbage
can which had been placed on its side
to dry out, and there hammered away
for half an hour.
The hollow container made an ex-
cellent drum, and the large bird evi-
IDENTIFY liked the sound he was making.
He would drum away, with those pow
erful neck muscles and stout bill, then
raise his head and survey the land
scape, after which he would 70 back
to his drumming again.