Single Greeting Card - Northern Flicker on the Ground
4.25 x 5.5" (A2 size)
Kraft brown bag envelope with coordinating liner
Blank inside
Supporting sustainability: 100% recycled post-consumer waste card and envelope; 30% post-consumer waste envelope liner; commercially compostable plastic sleeve.
These six birds dart in and out of the grasses, flowers, and ferns in our yard: chickadee, flicker, woodpecker, robin, hummingbird, and starling. Each card includes my curious discoveries on the back.
Text on the back of this card:
Northern Flicker on the Ground
I first spied a flicker bobbing across our lawn early one spring. Turns out the green grass is one of this woodpecker’s favorite places, owing to the ants that make up about half of their diet. I haven’t seen this yet, but flickers lie on the ground so that the ants will crawl onto their feathers — they have an acid that repels lice.
After I had drawn this, I learned the underfeathers on the tail are bright yellow. What a thing for an artist to miss! This is true in the eastern part of North America, but those feathers are rosy red in the west.
Want to see more flickers in your yard? Don’t be so quick about cleaning out your rotten trees. Flickers love them for nesting – and this would be good, since population has decreased by half since the 1960s.