A close cousin to last week’s Campo Flicker, the Andean Flicker is a South American species. The Andean Flicker is restricted to the Andes, as its common name suggests. It’s not a forest bird at all; it scientific name is Colaptes rupicola, where the “rupicola” translates as “rock-loving.” And it’d odd in several ways.

It doesn’t nest in tree cavities – or even termite mounds – at all. Instead, i excavates burrows in banks of cliffs. It’s also colonial, or at least semi-colonial. It’s also a high elevation bird, rarely found below 2,000 meters. Its appearance is pretty variable, depending on region. And it feeds exclusively on the ground. It’s also the largest member of the Colaptes genus, at 32 centimeters or 12.5 inches or so.And it’s the only woodpecker with a decurved bill, drooping downwards just a bit.

The Northern and Southern birds are treated as different species, and historically were lumped with completely different species. At least for now, the two subspecies are regarded as a separate species of their own. Like so many Neotropic bird species, they are poorly known to science.

They forage, often in groups, on the ground, looking for larvae, insects and other invertebrates. They are noisy, conspicuous and difficult to miss, much like our Northern Flicker.

There is no data on populations, but currently the IUCN classifies them as a species of Least Concern.

For more bird photographs, please visit Frozen Feather Images.