Hatch year flickers

Most of the birds that we are catching these days are hatch year birds, which means they were born within the last couple of months or so. Yesterday we got our first juvenile northern flicker, and today we've gotten three more, all from the same two nets, and all males.

The red mustache stripe tells you its a male


On this one you can see a white tip to the bill, something that we saw on two of the four, but did not notice on the others


Some of these young flickers can have a reddish wash to their crowns, something you will not see in adults


One of the most obvious traits of a very young bird is that every feather on its body is still growing in, like these tail feathers


This guy flew off, only to perch between two nets on this tree. He's still there right now, but I bet we find him in a net again soon.