[cobirds] Re: Possible Gilded Flicker, Fort Collins

Why not a hybrid red-shafted/yellow-shafted flicker? The 'hybrid' word is dreaded, but in the flicker situation, a rather large percentage of Northern Flickers through the Great Plains appear to be hybrids. I'm almost surprised when I find a 'real' red-shafted or yellow-shafted because so many seem to be odd mongrels. I've photographed a flicker within a hundred meters of the Fort Collins Discovery Museum within the last couple years that showed red-shafted head plumage, and yellow-shafted tail feathers (possibly the same bird photographed by Nick?). Considering Gilded Flicker is a sedentary saguaro desert beast which is almost strikingly smaller than "Northern" Flickers, how would we detect a vagrant Gilded in northern Colorado without a bird-in-hand at a mist net vs a photo? Which elements of back and wing plumage distinguish Northern vs. Gilded? I can share a photo of the presumed hybrid I have if anyone's interested, just give me a day or so to find it in my files.
Good birding from hybrid flickerville,
Derek Hill
Fort Collins

On Sunday, March 19, 2017 at 2:42:05 PM UTC-6, Nick Komar wrote:

I photographed a Flicker last Wednesday evening at the feeder behind the discovery museum in Fort Collins that seems to have traits of Gilded flicker. Whether this turns out to be Colorado's first Gilded Flicker, normally a resident of riparian habitat and desert in Arizona, or not remains to be seen. Elements in the tail, the back and wings and head suggested Gilded Flicker although the head pattern is somewhat confusing. It might be a hybrid between Gilded and red shafted flicker but even in that case I think it's mostly gilded. Here's a photo.

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to cobirds+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
To post to this group, send email to cobirds@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/7a7fb10f-c043-47d8-96f6-35213b0a913f%40googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.