Yellow-shafted flicker is also color commando

The northern yellow-shafted flicker is a colorful feast for the eyes with bright yellow feathers under its wings and tail and a body adorned with patches of red, gray, tan and black. The northern flicker is a woodpecker but prefers to forage for ants and beetles on the ground with its long, sticky tongue that can extend up to two inches past the tip of its beak. In addition to eating ants, northern flickers are known to partake in “anting,” allowing ants to crawl over their feathers to help control lice and other parasites.