We built this bird house out of old fence planks seven summers ago. The dimensions of the box and the hole were calculated for attracting the Red Shafted Flicker, a local woodpecker and helpmate for keeping the insect populations down during the spring and summer.

Although this bird house was built specifically with the Flicker in mind, it's perch hight is too low, too close to the ground. Each spring, the Flickers find the house, check it out, even go inside to test its comfort and safety, still, none have ever actually set up housekeeping. Next year, perhaps, we'll relocate the house high up in a backyard tree. But that would entail having to climb it!

There are two types of Flickers in North America. The Yellow Shafted Flicker (Colaptes auratus), also called the Yellowhammer, resides in the eastern part of North America. In the west, we find the Red Shafted Flicker (Colaptes auratus cafer). Both are types of woodpeckers and although they will eat seeds, they're great insect eating birds.