Zygodactyl Feet

A family of Northern Flickers came to visit our Seattle backyard this Thanksgiving weekend, attracted by the bird feeders out in the yard. Northern Flickers are also known as Orange-winged Flickers and are members of the woodpecker family. Attractive birds for sure, but of particular interest to a parrot person is the fact that flickers, and woodpeckers in general, have zygodactyl feet. Just like parrots.

Gorgeous Northern Flicker in our #Seattle backyard. A member of the woodpecker family, flickers like parrots have feet that are zygodactyl:

A photo posted by The Zen Parrot (@the_zen_parrot) on Nov 26, 2016 at 1:35pm PST

Zygodactyl is an appropriately dinosaurish word meaning two toes forward and two toes backward. Here our Hyacinth macaw parrot Princess Tara shows off her big zygodactyl feet.

But Grandmother! What big feet you have! With apologies to Little Red Riding Hood. But our Hyacinth Macaw #Parrot Princess Tara certainly does have big feet:

A photo posted by The Zen Parrot (@the_zen_parrot) on Sep 8, 2016 at 11:28am PDT

Beautiful juvenile Northern Flicker foraging in our #Seattle backyard. Flickers are members of the woodpecker family and like parrots are zygodactyl:

A video posted by The Zen Parrot (@the_zen_parrot) on Nov 26, 2016 at 1:58pm PST

Northern Flickers (a member of the woodpecker family) are also known as Orange-winged Flickers for obvious reasons. This flicker in our #Seattle backyard:

A video posted by The Zen Parrot (@the_zen_parrot) on Nov 26, 2016 at 2:07pm PST