Feather I.D. (Bird)

[Joe Pelonio]

You may remember my fight to keep creatures from eating the goldfish in my pond. Just now when feeding them I found this feather on the deck next to the pond. It measures just over 6" long, and 3/4" wide at the widest point.
I don't remember seeing any big birds this bright orange color around here. Any idea what it could be? I did make sure the netting was secure over the pond after seeing this.

[David G Baker]

Red tailed hawk that may have met a larger bird of prey?
I see lots of feathers near my bird feeders on occasion. I don't know what type of hawks I have in my area but they do feast on doves, blue jays, etc.

[Greg Peterson]

Looks like a Flicker feather to me.

[Joe Pelonio]

We have both red tailed hawks and flickers around here. I'll hope it was a flicker as they don't steal fish from ponds. I didn't know they were that big though.

[Greg Peterson]

I found a flicker feather in my yard a couple of weeks ago. Looked just like the feather you show.

We have red tailed hawks too. But the flickers are far more common. They are pretty comical to watch. They absolutely love to take dirt baths. If there is a patch of soil around, they flail and flop around in the dirt forever. And trying to get to the bird feeder is another adventure for these guys. Not the most coordinated of the larger birds we watch in our yard.

[Joe Pelonio]

I've seen them take bird seed from the feeder and "plant" it in the cracks in the fence, probably to attract bugs to eat later?

[Jim Benante]

I have found the same feather and believe it to be a Northern Flicker. Love birds, but the flickers like to make a racket on chimneys and we have one that sleeps under the roof at the peak of the house and has really chewed up the siding.

[Greg Peterson]

We've got a few flickers in our neighborhood, and for the most part they provide nothing but pleasure. Occasionally they'll rat-a-tat-tat on an aluminum flashing, but otherwise they don't cause any harm.

Whenever I hear their screech, I look at the tree tops as that is where they always seem to like to perch. Not near the top, but the actual top of the tree. We have some pretty tall conifers around us they seem partial to.

We recently had a gang, and I do mean gang in the worst sense, of Stellars Jays move into the 'hood. Beautiful birds, but bunch of thugs. And downright ugly calls.