Death of a flickertangential

January 28, 2004

The bird lay on its back alongside the road, dark wings tucked neatly in, the underside of its tail feathers bright yellow, beak long and narrow, creamy white chest feathers freckled in black. "A flicker," I said, as my sister picked it up gently. "The woodpecker family," I added, pointing to the small red patch on its head. But how it had died and come to lie there among the leaves in the subfreezing cold of mid-January, we could not tell.