The Northern Flicker will survive our winters especially if assisted with suet and seed. It specializes in eating ants so it spends a great deal of its time foraging on lawns and driveways. The call and song are distinctive so it can be heard and identified from a considerable distance. There are two distinct populations, the red-shafted and the yellow-shafted(check the colour of the outer tail and flight feathers). Our population is the yellow-shafted.