Alabama State Bird

The 22nd state of North America, Alabama, became a state on the 1st December of 1819 officially. The state has Montgomery as its capital city and a population of 4,833,722 as of 2013. It is also known as the Yellowhammer state, something that is related to the state bird. Let’s find out more about this wonderful state bird.

What is the state bird of Alabama?

On September 6 of 1927, the Northern Flicker took its position as Alabama’s official state bird. Present in the state in all seasons, they belong to the woodpecker family.

They are nicknamed yellowhammer, which is because of the yellow color of their underwings shaft of their feathers. Otherwise, the bird species is mostly gray with black polka dot-like spots all over them.

When a cavalry of young people from Huntsville wore bright yellow clothes, Alabama became known as the yellowhammer state. Easy to say that the Northern Flicker is embedded in Alabama’s history.

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What makes the state bird of Alabama unusual?

While there are many things that distinguish the Northern Flicker from other birds, particularly, the plumage color of the bird is interesting. It’s entire chest is gray with bits of brown and very defined black polka dots on it. The bird’s bill is also a little different from other birds. It is long and straight with a slight curve at the edges.

Northern Flicker Migration

Alabama state bird facts

Let’s learn some unknown facts about the Northern Flicker:

1. Like most woodpeckers, Northern Flickers can climb trees and hammer through the woods to look for food. However, strangely enough, they prefer to scour the ground looking for their prey . They love ants the most, and they look through massive dirt to find them. Since the Northern Flicker has a long, barbed tongue, it can directly swallow ants.

2. Among the woodpeckers of North America, Northern Flickers belong to the few that prefer migrating. During winter, those in the North tend to move South. Come summer, they move back North again.

3. One of the most common things Northern Flicker has with other woodpeckers is finding objects to drum on. By doing so, they communicate with other birds and also warn them of their territory. In this scenario, what they want to do is make the noise as loud as possible. That’s why sometimes just drumming on wood isn’t enough to satisfy them. They even find metal objects to warn others.

Final Thoughts

If you ever visit Alabama for vacation or for an exclusive birding trip, it would be a shame to not see the Northern Flicker at least once. However, that shouldn’t be a problem since this bird species like perching atop trees. As long as it’s a relatively open area, you should be able to spot some while on your trip to Alabama.

Ornithology