The Northern Flicker breaks all the woodpecker rules: it's brown, it's barred and polka-dotted, and it spends most of its time on the ground eating ants. Michigan's birds are "yellow-shafted" — in flight they flash golden underwings and a bold white rump patch that identifies them at a hundred yards. Males sport a black mustache stripe; both sexes wear a red crescent on the nape.
Flickers are loud in spring, with a long "wick-wick-wick" call and enthusiastic drumming on whatever resonates best (sometimes metal chimney caps, to homeowners' dismay). Most Michigan flickers migrate south in October, though some tough out the winter.
Ants above everything — flickers eat more of them than any other North American bird, lapping them up with a long, sticky tongue. Beetles, other ground insects, and wild fruit fill in, especially in fall and winter.
That's classic flicker behavior — they specialize in ground ants, probing anthills with that long curved bill. A brown woodpecker on the grass with a black chest crescent is a flicker every time.
The rump. A bounding brown woodpecker flashing a white rump and golden underwings is the standard Michigan flicker sighting — many people identify them only from behind.
Most Michigan flickers migrate to the southern U.S. in fall, and returning birds in late March are a genuine sign of spring. A few linger through winter, especially in the southern counties where fruit persists.
No — this is a permanent resident here, recorded in all twelve months. Numbers stay fairly steady from month to month. What changes through the year is behavior rather than presence: conspicuous song and display in spring, quieter foraging the rest of the year.
Juveniles look much like adults but are duller and fluffier, and young males may show only a partial black mustache. Sexing is easy at any age: only males have the mustache stripe.
Other birds you might be looking at instead.
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