{"id":35406,"date":"2026-03-07T18:29:32","date_gmt":"2026-03-08T03:29:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/?p=35406"},"modified":"2026-03-07T19:23:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-08T03:23:10","slug":"flickers-mate-in-midair","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/?p=35406","title":{"rendered":"Flickers mate in midair?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Two Northern Flickers were courting by bobbing at one another on the top of a tall piling. They then flew off \u2013 or so I thought. I kept shooting, hoping to catch their initial flight.<\/p>\n

But, they didn’t fly; they just fell off the piling together.<\/p>\n

And then they appeared to mate midair!<\/p>\n

But after three shots, they fell below the camera’s view. I will show the pictures first, and then discuss them.<\/p>\n

The first shot midair shows the male behind an inverted female as they fell.
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Next, she turns and he climbs on her back. \"\"<\/p>\n

In the last shot, he raises his wings (as is often seen when birds mate). Her wings are seen lifted beside him. Although blocked by the frame bottom, it does look as if they might be mating.
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The whole thing was surprising to me. So, I checked various webpages on flickers to look for some statement saying that flickers are known to mate midair. None said anything about mating. Maybe it was just too delicate a topic.<\/p>\n

In some initial AI searches, I was told categorically that Northern Flickers do not mate midair. Indeed, when I persisted with questions, I was told:<\/p>\n

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In the British Columbia interior, sightings of “aerial mating” are frequently reported in early March. However, these are strictly agonistic or courtship displays. Flickers in BC require the stability of sturdy snags\u2014often Western Larch or Ponderosa Pine\u2014to successfully complete copulation.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Now, agonistic displays are just conflict displays, for example a male-male fight. But, neither conflict nor courtship displays look anything like a mating. So, does it really look as if I photographed an aerial mating of Northern Flickers in early March?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Two Northern Flickers were courting by bobbing at one another on the top of a tall piling. They then flew off \u2013 or so I thought. I kept shooting, hoping to catch their initial flight. But, they didn’t fly; … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-birds"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35406","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=35406"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35406\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35428,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35406\/revisions\/35428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=35406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=35406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=35406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}