(_Colaptes auratus_) Woodpecker family
_Called also_: GOLDEN-WINGED WOODPECKER; CLAPE; PIGEON
WOODPECKER; YELLOWHAMMER; HIGH-HOLE OR HIGH-HOLDER;
YARUP; WAKE-UP; YELLOW-SHAFTED WOODPECKER
(Illustrations facing pp. 24 and 134)
_Length_--12 to 13 inches. About one-fourth as large again as
the robin.
_Male and Female_--Head and neck bluish gray, with a red
crescent across back of neck and a black crescent on breast.
Male has black cheek-patches, that are wanting in female.
Golden brown shading into brownish-gray, and barred with black
above. Underneath whitish, tinged with light chocolate and
thickly spotted with black. Wing linings, shafts of wing, and
tail-quills bright yellow. Above tail white, conspicuous when
the bird flies.
_Range_--United States, east of Rockies; Alaska and British
America, south of Hudson Bay. Occasional on Pacific slope.
_Migrations_--Most commonly seen from April to October.
Usually resident.
If we were to follow the list of thirty-six aliases by which this
largest and commonest of our woodpeckers is known throughout its wide
range, we should find all its peculiarities of color, flight, noises,
and habits indicated in its popular names. It cannot but attract
attention wherever seen, with its beautiful plumage, conspicuously
yellow if its outstretched wings are looked at from below,
conspicuously brown and white if seen upon the ground. At a distance
it suggests the meadowlark. Both birds wear black, crescent breast
decorations, and the flicker also has the habit of feeding upon the
ground, especially in autumn, a characteristic not shared by its
relations.
Early in the spring this bird of many names and many voices makes
itself known by a long, strong, sonorous call, a sort of proclamation
that differs from its song proper, which Audubon calls "a prolonged
jovial laugh" (described by Mrs. Wright as "_Wick, wick, wick,
wick!_"), and differs also from its rapidly repeated, mellow, and most
musical _cuh, cuh, cuh, cuh, cuh_, uttered during the nesting season.
Its nasal _kee-yer_, vigorously called out in the autumn, is less
characteristic, however, than the sound it makes while associating
with its fellows on the feeding ground--a sound that Mr. Frank M.
Chapman says can be closely imitated by the swishing of a willow wand.
A very ardent and ridiculous-looking lover is this bird, as, with tail
stiffly spread, he sidles up to his desired mate and bows and bobs
before her, then retreats and advances, bowing and bobbing again, very
often with a rival lover beside him (whom he generously tolerates)
trying to outdo him in grace and general attractiveness. Not the least
of the bird's qualities that must commend themselves to the bride is
his unfailing good nature, genial alike in the home and in the field.
The "high-holders" have the peculiar and silly habit of boring out a
number of superfluous holes for nests high up in the trees, in
buildings, or hollow wooden columns, only one of which they intend to
use. Six white eggs is the proper number for a household, but Dr.
Coues says the female that has been robbed keeps on laying three or
even four sets of eggs without interruption.