Flicker: a form of time travel; to move by appearing in two places at once; passing completely out of the human world into a timeless world no human can see, and back, thus skipping across time like a stone; applicable to birds and flame. The flick is both the motion the bird or flame uses to move, as well as the unmoving space the bird or flame moves through, glimpsed briefly, then lost, and always in memory, never in anticipation.

Northern Flicker Taking Flight