My sweet little Northern Flicker

This little gal spent hours hanging onto the rocks on the sunny side of the house.  I was pretty worried by the time 4 hours passed and she had only moved a few rocks over.  Well, actually I was worried long before that ... but it was at least 4 hours til she flew off and went to the suet feeder and also got a drink of water at the heated water bowl.  I felt somewhat better then...

It looked like she was sleepy.. because her eyes kept closing.  There was definitely something not quite right with her though, because usually they fly off if I even move anywhere near the window.  This day, I was even able to remove the screen inside the window to get a better photo of her and she just hung there.  By then, I was not sure if I wanted to take her photo... because I felt it wasn't fair.  If they are injured or sick ... I always feel like that.  It is like having an unfair advantage over them and I feel bad about it.

Silly me I guess.  But, later, at dusk, when she did fly away to the nearby Poplar tree and then...on to the nearby golf course trees....I felt a bit better about her health.  She was back in the morning and only hung out on the house side for about 2 hours and then... hasn't been hanging onto it since.  Maybe she just had a headache from pecking something too hard,  or was sick for a few days or something....  I hope that's all it was.

Anyway....I did take several great photos of her and I wanted to post them today.

Here she is  ...  my beautiful little Northern Flicker girl.  Please do click to 'embiggen' and see her lovely face right up close and personal.  So gentle looking... and, I'm sure she sees me, but doesn't appear too concerned about me at all ..... maybe she knows I'm harmless.

If you'd like to see more birds.... head over to Stewart's blog, Paying Ready Attention.  Or, click on the badge below..