Photo Source: eBird.com
When we lived in Paraguay, I often saw three Campo Flickers all together. Rarely did I see one or two of them; if one of them was there, all three were. I wondered what their relationship was. Were they a pair with their offspring? (They all seemed the same size.) Were they a little group of buddies? I don’t know.
These birds used to be called Field Flickers. A student at our school had found them in her bird book, and she was excited to show them to me on our campus. “Look at the Field Flickers!” she said, and again, there were three of them. I wondered if they were the same three we saw at our apartment, quite nearby, but of course I didn’t know for sure.
I decided to write a little nursery-rhyme style poem about these Campo Flickers.
Three Campo Flickers,
Early morning crew,
Perched on the power line
Looking down on you.
If one flew away,
Then there’d be two.
Two Campo Flickers
Wouldn’t have much fun,
Making sounds like hungry puppies
In the noonday sun.
If one flew away,
Then there’d be one.
One Campo Flicker
Lonesome in a tree
Late in the afternoon
Eating bugs — you see?
No, no, of course you don’t,
Cause look! There are three!
Three Campo Flickers
Taking to the sky.
Three woodpeckers fly away,
Yellow flashing by,
Almost always three of them,
Though I don’t know why.
©Ruth Bowen Hersey
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