At first glance, a Northern Flicker is a pleasant shock. With a black bib and moustache with a red scarf, you don’t expect to see this dapper migratory woodpecker on the ground. Festooned with black and brown scalloped dots, he’s quite the resplendent dandy.

Yet there he was, crouched in doorway on Halsted Street in Chicago. Looking a bit stunned, Kathle…