One Flock of Flickers....

...and a partridge in a pear tree. A Flock of Flickers is not in the old Christmas carol but it sounds like it could be. It seems that Northern Flickers (Colaptes auratus), though I've only seen single birds or couples in the spring and summer, like to flock in larger numbers in the winter. There's only one visible in this photo (upper right) but there were four of them altogether foraging for insects in the Matson Lands above the West Bay Walkway. Like other members of the woodpecker family Flickers seek out insects in tree bark but they also forage for bugs on the ground. Perhaps that's the reason we see more of them in the city than other members of the family. (NOT the greatest bird photo but I didn't have a telephoto lens with me that day.)