Northern (a.ka. yellow-shafted) flicker

February

The Northern Flicker was once known as the Yellow-shafted flicker, a nod to its bright yellow undersides. But science being what it is, the yellow-shafted and its red-shafted cousin were deemed to be the same species. From the Cornell Lab of Ornithology:

The red-shafted and yellow-shafted forms of the Northern Flicker formerly were considered different species. The two forms hybridize extensively in a wide zone from Alaska to the panhandle of Texas. A hybrid often has some traits from each of the two forms and some traits that are intermediate between them. The Red-shafted Flicker also hybridizes with the Gilded Flicker, but less frequently.

Photos below show the bird and the last photo provides a glimpse of yellow. He was trying his best, I think, to pull some berries off a vine.

fl2

fl3

This entry was posted on Monday, February 1st, 2010 at 12:13 pm by Mike Risinit.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
Print | Email

It is a condition of your use of the comment features associated with the blogs that you do not: Use the site to post or transmit any unlawful, threatening, abusive, libelous, defamatory, obscene, vulgar, pornographic, profane or indecent information of any kind, including without limitation any transmissions constituting or encouraging conduct that would constitute a criminal offense, give rise to civil liability or otherwise violate any local, state, national or international law. You alone are responsible for the material you post or send. Refer to the Terms of Service.