Northern Flicker

Tis the season, where the males start to stake out their territory. This morning on my walk at West Branch Forest Preserve, I saw two Northern Flickers do just that. One was “hiding” behind a sign, as the other would do a fly by, then sit in a near by tree. The “sign” Flicker would drum the back of the sign every few minutes. I’ve never seen this behavior before, so it was pretty interesting to watch.