adult, in the red-shafted flicker is similar to that of the northern
flicker, but there is one marked difference in the color pattern in the
juvenal plumage; whereas in _auratus_ young birds of both sexes have
black malar patches, in _cafer_ only the young male has the red malar
patches. Kidgway (1914) describes the juvenal male of the red-shafted
flicker as “similar to the adult male, but coloration duller, gray of
throat, etc., duller, more brownish, black jugular patch smaller and
less sharply defined, black spots on under parts less sharply defined,
less rounded, feathers of pileum indistinctly tipped with paler, and
red malar stripes less bright, less uniform, and black terminal area on
under side of tail not sharply defined.” The young female is similar to
the young male, but the malar region is grayish brown instead of red.
The juvenal plumage is worn through summer, and a complete molt during
fall produces a first-winter plumage that is practically adult. Adults
have a complete annual molt late in summer and fall.
A most interesting and unique case, among American birds at least, of
hybridizing on an extensive scale over a wide region occurs between
_Colaptes auratus_ and _Colaptes cafer_. We found this most beautifully
illustrated in southwestern Saskatchewan, where pure-blooded birds of
both species were taken, together with quite a series of hybrid birds
showing all the intermediate grades of plumage. Almost all the males
showed some traces of the red malar stripes of _cafer_, and nearly all
showed some traces of the red nuchal crescent of _auratus_; the other
characters seemed to be less constant. I collected a pure-blooded
male _auratus_ and a nearly pure-blooded _cafer_ female, which were
apparently mated. And two young in juvenal plumage, one almost pure
_cafer_ and the other equally near _auratus_, were taken from the same
family.
Although the general color _patterns_ of the two species are strikingly
similar, or parallel, the characters that separate them are radically
qualitative rather than quantitative, so that the numerous hybrids
cannot by any means be considered as intermediates between subspecies.
No two species of a genus could well present more striking contrasts in
_coloration_ in such similar patterns.
In one species the quills are red, in the other yellow; the male has a
red malar stripe in one and a black stripe in the other; neither sex
in _cafer_ has the red nuchal crescent, while both sexes have it in
_auratus_; _cafer_ has the throat and fore neck gray and the top of the
head and hind neck brown, while these colors are reversed in _auratus_.
These contrasting colors may be blended or mixed in an almost endless
variety of patterns in the hybrids; and the patterns are often
asymmetrical, the opposite sides of the bird being quite different.
Some specimens of _cafer_ show the first traces of _auratus_ blood by
the presence of a few black feathers in the malar stripe, or traces of
the red nuchal crescent. Slight traces of _cafer_ blood in _auratus_
appear with a mixture of red in the black malar strip, or with a tinge
of orange or reddish in the wings or tail. Between these two extremes
there is every degree of blending or mixture of the characters.
For many years after these interesting hybrids were discovered and
described by Baird (1858), they were known only from the upper Missouri
and Yellowstone River region. Later they were found to be widely
distributed from the western border of the Great Plains westward to
the Pacific coast, and from Texas to southern Canada. While the center
of abundance of birds showing thoroughly mixed characters seems to lie
between the Great Plains and the Rocky Mountains, evidence of hybrid
blood is much more widely dispersed in a gradually diminishing degree,
more strongly westward and to a lesser degree eastward. Dr. J. A.
Allen (1892), in his excellent paper on this subject, says: “Specimens
with a slight amount of red in the malar stripe are represented in the
material I have examined from Massachusetts, Long Island, New Jersey
(five specimens), Pennsylvania, Virginia, Florida (several), Louisiana
(several), Tennessee, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois (several), Michigan
(two), and Minnesota. They seem to be quite as frequent along the
Atlantic seaboard as at any point east of the Mississippi River.”
_Food._--Professor Beal’s (1910) study of 118 stomachs of the two
western races of the red-shafted flicker showed that 54 percent of the
food was animal and 46 percent vegetable matter. Of the animal food,
beetles constituted 3 percent, most of which were harmful; there were
only a few predatory carabids; ants made up 45 percent of the year’s
food; other Hymenoptera totaled 1 percent, and miscellaneous items,
such as caterpillars, crickets, and spiders, amounted to 5 percent of
the food.
Of the vegetable food, acorns formed 10 percent of the yearly food;
grains, including rye, corn, barley, and oats, amounted to 4 percent;
fruits, averaging 15 percent, included pears, apples, grapes, cherries,
and prunes; and the other 17 percent was made up of wild fruits, such
as pepperberries, elderberries, and gooseberries and the seeds of the
poison oak and sumac and of a few weeds. He says of the poison-oak
seeds:
The consumption of these seeds would be a decided benefit
to man if they were ground up and destroyed in the
stomachs. Unfortunately they are either regurgitated or
pass through the intestinal tract uninjured and ready to
germinate. The action of the stomach simply removes the
outer covering, a white, wax-like substance, which is
probably very nutritious, and is evidently relished by many
birds. Birds are probably the most active agents in the
dissemination of these noxious shrubs. On the other hand,
these seeds, which are wonderfully abundant, afford food
for thousands of birds during the winter, when other food
is hard to obtain, and thus enable the birds to tide over
the cold season to do their good work of destroying insects
the next summer.
Johnson A. Neff (1928) says that “in a great many instances they are
known to feed on the larvæ of the codling moth”; and that “ants were
the largest item of food for the year, averaging 40.30%, taken during
every month; several stomachs held over 2,000 each, and many of them
contained over 500.” Among the vegetable food he lists manzanita
berries and seeds and such wild fruits as madrona, dogwood, haw,
serviceberry, elderberry, Oregon crab, and huckleberry; seeds of poison
oak averaged 7.5 percent, but in December the percentage was 33.3.
Referring to the fruit-eating habits of this flicker in Los Angeles
County, Calif., Robert S. Woods (1932) writes:
Fortunately for the grower, and perhaps for the birds as
well, the rind of an orange is impervious to the attacks
of any ordinary bird, though when once opened the fruit is
well liked by many of them. Only the Red-shafted Flicker
(_Colaptes cafer collaris_) is able to chisel through the
tough skin; after making a round opening large enough for
the insertion of its bill, it scoops out a large portion
of the pulp with its tongue. Examples of this sort of
damage, however, are infrequent and usually, as it seems,
in oranges which have fallen to the ground, where they are
more easily reached.
The flicker’s attacks on avocados appear more serious,
though this is partly due to the smaller numbers of the
fruit available. Avocados which hang near a convenient
perch are often found to have a roughly circular hole
extending through to the seed. In a few of the fruits these
holes have been considerably enlarged, but usually they are
not much larger than the base of the bird’s bill.
Jack C. von Bloeker, Jr. (1935), saw three red-shafted flickers capture
scarab “beetles in flycatcher fashion. In each case, the bird attained
a position behind its intended victim, then, taking up the erratic
zigzag course of the beetle, suddenly swooped down and captured it in
mid-air.”
Major Bendire (1895) also says: “Besides the usual insects and larvæ
upon which this species feeds, I have seen it catch grasshoppers, both
on the ground and on the wing, and it is likewise very fond of wild
strawberries.”
_Behavior._--I can find nothing in the behavior or general habits of
the red-shafted flicker that is essentially different from the habits
of the northern flicker. It has the same annoying habit of drumming on
the resonant parts of dwellings at early hours in the morning, which
is quite disturbing to sleepers. It also does considerable damage
to buildings by drilling holes in the eaves or walls for nesting or
roosting places, spending winter nights or even stormy days in such
sheltered retreats. John G. Tyler (1913) says on this subject:
Unfortunately these handsome birds have fallen into
disfavor among a large number of both city dwellers and
country residents, on account of their habit of drilling
holes in the gable ends of buildings. When once a house
has been selected it seems that nothing short of death
will cause them to cease their drilling operations until
one, and in some cases three or four, holes have been
cut through the outer wall of the building. Whether
these holes, which are generally made in the winter, are
excavated for roosting places or simply through a sort of
nervous energy seems a matter of doubt; but certain it is
that the birds spend much time in them as soon as they
succeed in completing their work. It is a common sight, on
rainy days, to see a Flicker’s head peering out from his
open doorway.
The speed in flight of the red-shafted flicker has been recorded as
from 25 to 27 miles an hour, as measured with the speedometer of an
automobile.
Grinnell and Storer (1924) write of its habits:
The tramper in almost any part of the Yosemite region
can hardly fail to at least hear one or more Red-shafted
Flickers in a half-day’s circuit. Although these birds are
never seen in true flocks, he may flush from favorable
places as many as 6 of them within a few yards. This is
particularly true on the floor of Yosemite Valley during
the autumn months. This omnivorous woodpecker then almost
completely forsakes the timber and forages in the brush
patches, eating berries of various sorts, especially
cascara; it often seeks the open meadows where it gathers
ants and grasshoppers.
The birds flush one or two at a time, often not until the
observer is almost upon them; then the sudden flapping of
broad pinkish-red wings, the view of the white rump patch
fully displayed, leave no doubt in the observer’s mind as
to the identity. A bird seldom flies far before alighting,
not against an upright tree trunk as with most other
woodpeckers, but perching on a branch, to bow deeply this
way and that and perhaps utter its explosive _claip_.
_Voice._--The notes of the red-shafted flicker are almost identical
with those of the northern flicker, though George F. Simmons (1925)
evidently thinks that the voice is “much coarser, rougher, and heavier,
* * * easily distinguished when the two are heard calling near each
other.”
_Field marks._--The white rump is the most conspicuous recognition
mark for both species, and the color _pattern_ is similar for both,
but the flashing colors in the wings and tail, as well as the other
contrasting colors, will serve to distinguish the red-shafted from the
yellow-shafted species.
_Winter._--During the winter that I spent in Pasadena, flickers were
common or abundant all winter in an arroyo on the outskirts of the
city. I could always find them picking up food among the dry leaves on
the ground, or flying about among the large sycamores and live oaks.
On a bright, sunny morning, after a frosty night, they could be seen
perched in the topmost branches of the tallest trees, which were the
first to catch the warmth of the rising sun. On February 14, 1929, I
saw two males perched close together facing each other, bowing and
nodding, or bobbing up and down, as if beginning to feel the urge of
spring.
DISTRIBUTION
_Range._--Western North America south to the Isthmus of Tehuantepec.
_Breeding range._--The red-shafted flicker breeds =north= to
southeastern Alaska (Sitka and Portage Cove); central British Columbia
(158-mile House and Horse Lake); west-central Alberta (Jasper House);
southern Saskatchewan (Cypress Hills); and North Dakota (Fort Union,
Oakdale, and Fort Clark). =East= to central North Dakota (Fort Clark);
South Dakota (Reliance and Yankton); northwestern Nebraska (Chadron);
Colorado (Fort Morgan, Denver, Colorado Springs, and Beulah); extreme
western Oklahoma (Kenton); central New Mexico (Santa Fe, Cloudcroft,
and Mesilla); western Chihuahua (San Luis Mountains and Pinos Altos);
Durango (Rio Sestin, Arroyo del Buey, and Durango City); Tamaulipas
(Ciudad Victoria); Hilaygo (Real del Monte); Vera Cruz (Jalapa and
Orizaba); and eastern Oaxaca (Villa Alta and Totontepec). =South= to
Oaxaca (Totontepec); Guerrero (Omilteme); and Jalisco (Zapotlan and
Volcan de Colima). From this southwestern point the species ranges
north through the mountains of western Mexico, including northern
Baja California and (formerly) Guadalupe Island, California, Oregon,
Washington, and British Columbia, to southeastern Alaska (Sitka).
_Winter range._--The red-shafted flicker is a resident species over
most of its range, withdrawing from the more northern parts only
during severe winters. At this season it is found =north= regularly to
southern British Columbia (Comox, Okanagan, and Edgewood); northern
Montana (Fortine and Great Falls); eastern Wyoming (Midwest); and
rarely southeastern South Dakota (Yankton).
The range as outlined applies to the entire species, of which four
subspecies or geographic races are now recognized. The typical form,
known as the northwestern flicker (_Colaptes c. cafer_), is found
in the northern Pacific coast regions from southeastern Alaska and
western British Columbia south to northern California. The red-shafted
flicker (_C. c. collaris_) occurs over all the remaining parts of
the range except for certain mountainous areas in northern Baja
California and Guadalupe Island, occupied by the San Pedro flicker
(_C. c. martirensis_) and the now extinct Guadalupe flicker (_C. c.
rufipileus_).
_Migration._--Such migratory movements as are made by this species
cannot be satisfactorily portrayed by the use of dates. The most
conspicuous migration is vertical rather than lateral, for during
fall and winter in the eastern part of the range there is a more or
less well-defined movement east from the Rocky Mountain region onto
the Great Plains. At these seasons the species may travel eastward to
Iowa (Forest City, Boone, and Des Moines); Missouri (Kansas City);
Arkansas (Van Buren); southeastern Oklahoma (Caddo); and eastern Texas
(Gainesville, Waco, Somerset, and Brownsville).
_Spring migration._--In the northern part of the breeding range, from
which the species appears to withdraw in winter with more or less
regularity, the following are early dates of spring arrival: South
Dakota--White River, March 28; Yankton, April 1. North Dakota--McKenzie
County, March 31; Arnegard, April 11. Alberta--Banff, April 3; Warner,
April 24; Edmonton, April 29. Alaska--Kupreanof Island, April 12.
_Fall migration._--Late dates of departure from northern areas
are: Alaska--Wrangell, November 26. Alberta--Jasper, September 8;
Henry House, September 22. North Dakota--Grafton, October 7 (one
was collected in the Red River Valley on December 6, 1924). South
Dakota--Faulkton, October 15.
Although red-shafted flickers have been banded in considerable numbers,
the Biological Survey files do not contain any data indicative of an
extensive flight from the point of banding. There are, however, many
cases of recapture in succeeding seasons at the banding station.
_Casual records._--Among the few records where this species has been
collected or observed outside its normal range are the following: One
was taken at Grafton, N. Dak., April 19, 1925, and another was shot
near Winnipeg, Manitoba, September 30, 1904. There are two records for
northern Alberta, one at Fort Chipewyan, May 21, 1893, and the other
at Smiths Portage, June 8, 1908. Other records, some of which are
from points farther east (as Minnesota), are for hybrids between this
species and _C. auratus_.
_Egg dates._--British Columbia: 13 records, May 8 to June 7; 7
records, May 14 to 26, indicating the height of the season.
California: 75 records, April 9 to July 2; 38 records, May 3 to 28.
Colorado: 22 records, May 5 to July 1; 11 records, May 22 to 31.
Guadalupe Island: 6 records, April 8 to June 8.
Oregon: 33 records, May 3 to June 12; 17 records, May 12 to June 1.
Washington: 17 records, April 29 to June 10; 9 records, May 12 to 24.
COLAPTES CAFER CAFER (Gmelin)
NORTHWESTERN FLICKER
PLATE 38
HABITS
The northwestern flicker was formerly known as _Colaptes cafer
saturatior_ Ridgway, type locality Neah Bay, Wash. But it has since
been learned that Gmelin’s name _Picus cafer_ was based on a bird taken
at Bay of Good Hope, Nootka Sound, British Columbia. As this locality
is well within the range of the northwestern flicker, Gmelin’s name has
priority over Ridgway’s _saturatior_.
This larger and more richly colored race of _Colaptes cafer_ inhabits
the humid Northwest coast region, from Sitka, Alaska, to northern
California, Humboldt County, including most of southern British
Columbia east to the Kootenay district. It is not only larger than
_Colaptes cafer collaris_, but its upper parts are browner and its
under parts are more strongly suffused with vinaceous.
D. E. Brown writes to me that this “is the common woodpecker of western
Washington. It will outnumber all the other woodpeckers two to one.”
Referring to its haunts on Mount Rainier, Taylor and Shaw (1927)
say: “As the noisiest and most conspicuous, adaptable, and broadly
distributed woodpecker in the park, the flicker is bound to achieve
some notoriety. It avoids the dark woods, and undoubtedly prefers the
tracts of dead stubs which are encountered at fairly frequent intervals
around the mountain; for here both nesting sites and food are present
in great abundance.”
Major Bendire (1895) says that “in western Oregon, and probably also in
northwestern California, it appears to be found only on the summits of
the different mountains between the Cascades and the coast during the
breeding season, where the same moist climate prevails as is found in
the immediate vicinity of the coast, while in the drier lowlands, such
as the Umpqua, Rogue, and Willamette river valleys, it is replaced by”
_Colaptes cafer collaris_.
_Nesting._--The nesting habits of the northwestern flicker do not seem
to differ materially from those of its close relative farther south.
D. E. Brown tells me that this bird “will nest anywhere where there is
room to dig out a cavity large enough for the nest. I have found them
in large stumps and in fenceposts and from 18 inches from the ground
to 100 feet up. They will nest in birdboxes of suitable size and will
use them for winter homes. The eggs are from 5 to 10 in number and may
be found May 1 to August. Both birds incubate and, when incubation is
advanced, sit very close; sometimes they are removed by hand.”
Harry S. Swarth (1911a) reports a nest, found at Portage Cove,
Revillagigedo Island, Alaska, that “was in a dead stub, some fifty feet
from the ground. The stump was so rotten that an attempt to climb it
brought down the whole upper portion, including the nest, in a mass
of disintegrated punk. * * * The nest tree was in a valley bordering
a stream, in fairly open country, with clumps of scattered timber
interspersed between the open meadows.”
_Eggs._--The eggs of this race are indistinguishable from those of the
red-shafted flicker, except for a slight average difference in size.
The measurements of 47 eggs average 29.37 by 22.37 millimeters; the
eggs showing the four extremes measure =32.0= by 23.4, 30.6 by =24.3=,
and =26.4= by =20.8= millimeters.
_Food._--What has been said about the food of the red-shafted flicker,
and to a large extent that of the northern flicker, would apply equally
well to the northwestern. D. E. Brown says in his notes: “It puts in
most of its time feeding on the ground and becomes quite tame around
houses. I once placed some cornmeal on the back porch for some small
birds. A flicker lit on the porch and, approaching the meal, laid its
head sideways nearly on the floor and ran its long tongue through the
meal several times; it then turned its head over and repeated the
operation from the other side, leaving a checkered effect on the meal.”
Theed Pearse writes to me from Vancouver Island that he has seen “a
flicker picking up grains of rolled-oats off a flat surface by a
sideways action of the beak.” Flickers at his feeding station fed on
apples, but seemed to prefer suet or fat.
S. F. Rathbun, of Seattle, has sent me the following interesting note:
“On one occasion in November I watched a northwestern flicker for more
than an hour feeding on a closely cut lawn in our yard. At different
times it had visited the spot, and I became somewhat curious to know
what the food represented that the bird found. This time as soon as
the woodpecker alighted it commenced tapping rapidly with its beak the
surface of the lawn, from time to time driving its bill into the earth.
Then when this was withdrawn oftener than not it held an earthworm
or some large grub, which at once was eaten and then the tapping
recommenced. On two occasions I could plainly see that its prey was
cutworms. But what was of particular interest was the painstaking way
in which the flicker worked over every inch of the small space to which
it confined its attentions, for the spot was not larger than 10 by 15
feet, and this was gone over again and again. During the time I watched
the flicker it captured more than a dozen earthworms, all of which were
of good size, and also eight cutworms. Another action of the bird while
it was hunting caught my attention. At odd times it would vigorously
scratch the surface of the lawn as if to uncover some prey, and I
noticed that each time this took place, a worm would be pulled from the
earth by the bird.”
He says further, in a letter, regarding this observation: “At the
time we watched it, the bird was so close we had difficulty at times
in using the field glasses, so could readily see what it obtained.
Sometimes it would pull an angleworm from the ground very much as a
robin does, the worm stretched out to quite an extent.”
_Behavior._--There is nothing peculiar in the behavior of this flicker
that would not apply to its close relatives equally well. But J. Hooper
Bowles (1926) had his attention called in an interesting way to the
regularity of its habits in going to roost. He was calling on a friend
one afternoon in the fall of 1924, of which he writes: “I happened to
remark that it was half past three, when my friend answered quickly,
‘In five minutes it will be bedtime for our Flicker.’ This somewhat
astonished me, but we went outside the house and took a station where
we could command a good view of a certain section of the eaves of
the house. Sure enough, in about five minutes a Northwestern Flicker
swooped up and hung itself woodpecker-fashion against a board under the
eaves, where it composed itself for spending the night. The bird had
been doing this with absolute regularity for some time, although it was
of course broad daylight and bright sunshine.”
COLAPTES CAFER MARTIRENSIS Grinnell
SAN PEDRO FLICKER
HABITS
Under the above name, Dr. Joseph Grinnell (1927b) has separated and
described the red-shafted flicker of the Sierra San Pedro Martir region
of northern Baja California. He describes it as follows:
Similar in general characters to _Colaptes cafer collaris_
Vigors (topotypes from Monterey, California), but averaging
slightly smaller, bill more attenuated (especially more
compressed in terminal half), and tone of ground color on
head and on upper and lower surfaces in fresh plumage much
more gray (rather than brown or vinaceous). * * *