The Northern Flicker comes in two flavours- yellow-shafted and red-shafted. They live in woodlands and forest edges. From what I’ve read, they’re ground foragers (ants and fruit), but they set up their nests in tree cavity holes. You can distinguish between the two sub-groups by the colour of their underwings, yellow and red. Their wings look amazing in flight. This particular specimen was hanging out in a neighbourhood. There tends to be a lot of trees and plants even in urban areas, so it’s not surprising to see them in the city.
They emit a loud call (kew kew kew), and in the months of May through June they get busy parenting a single brood of about 6-8 eggs (Bird, 2016).
Well camouflaged in lower branch
The underside of the wings contains the colour for each subgroup. I didn't see this one fly, but the first image shows that it has a reddish colour under its wings, identifying it as a red-shafted subtype. Regardless of colour, the two groups get together in the Great Plains for romantic liaisons.
Resource
Bird, David M (Editor). 2016. Pocket Birds of Canada.
Images by @litguru
