Re: [cobirds] What do y'all make of this woodpecker?

All,

There is a nice article on intergrade red shafted/yellow shafted Flickers by Steve Mlodinow at
http://birdhybrids.blogspot.com/2014/06/norther-flicker-intergrades.html

Several of the birds (1383, 1384, 1449, 1450) look quite like the bird seen in Boulder County.

Looking through the field guides, perhaps the biggest difference between an intergrade and

Gilded Flicker is in size: Northern Flicker 12.5 inches: Gilded Flicker 11.5 inches in National
Geographic and 11 inches in Sibley.  Very difficult to tell the bird's size from the photograph.

Cheers,  Peter Gent.

Boulder.
 

On Tue, Jan 23, 2018 at 1:53 PM, Ted Floyd <tedfloyd57@hotmail.com> wrote:

Hey, folks. Check out this woodpecker, which I photographed yesterday, Mon., Jan. 22, at the Lake Park Open Space, Boulder County:

If this photo were from, oh I dunno, Yuma, Arizona, or somewhere, wouldn't we call this a male Gilded Flicker? It's got the all-brown crown, the extensive black tail tips, the big black oval on the breast, the pale back, and of course the telltale red malar and bright yellow in the wing and tail. I well realize that we're not in Yuma. But, other than the probabilistic argument, can anybody talk me away from the ledge of calling this a Gilded Flicker?

Sorry, I have no other photos. When I was in the field, I assumed I was looking at a Red-shafted x Yellow-shafted. I will say that two impressions struck me at the time: (1) the truly yellow hues to the wings and tail; (2) a sweetness and wimpiness about the whirrr flushing call.

Also of interest at the Lake Park Open Space was a flock of 10 Steller's Jays. This is the same place that for several years was the easternmost outpost in Boulder County for Woodhouse's Scrub-Jay.

Ted Floyd

Lafayette, Boulder County

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