Part 38

A common note, oftenest heard during summer and fall, is a plaintive call suggesting one of the notes of the blue jay or the red-shouldered hawk. It is a loud and rather musical note, which has been variously interpreted as _pee-ut_, _ye-a-up_, _pee-up_, _que-ah_, _kee-yer_, etc., given singly or repeated two or three times, as a ringing call of considerable carrying power.

_Field marks._--While hopping about on the lawn, the flicker may be recognized as a brown bird somewhat larger than a robin and with a rather long bill; if facing the observer, the black crescent on the spotted breast is rather conspicuous, but the red crescent on the nape does not show up much except at short range, nor does the black malar patch of the male. The most conspicuous field mark is the white rump, which shows plainly as the bird rises from the ground and flies away; this probably serves as a direction mark, or a warning to the companions with which it is often associated. Then, of course, the flash of bright yellow in the wings and tail marks the bird in flight, chiefly when high in the air, but somewhat also in straightaway flight.

_Enemies._--When I was a boy, 50 or 60 years ago, flickers, meadowlarks, and robins were considered legitimate game, and they were very good to eat. Bunches of these birds were often seen hanging in the game dealers’ stalls. During our fall vacations on the coast, when the weather was unfavorable for coot shooting, my father and uncle used to resort to the uplands to shoot “partridge woodpeckers” and “brown backs” (robins) among the bayberry bushes and sumacs. And flickers were slaughtered in large numbers in the South. Man was then the flicker’s worst enemy, but that is now all ancient history, as these birds are now protected. But a new enemy has been introduced, which is probably worse than the old one. The European starling has come to compete with the flicker in its search for a food supply. The starlings are now so abundant that they swoop down in flocks on the formerly plentiful supply of wild fruits and berries, stripping the trees and bushes clean of the fruits on which the flickers and robins depended for their summer and fall food. They also compete for nesting sites, fighting for or usurping every available cavity, even driving the flickers from the homes that they had made. Lester W. Smith writes to me: “For several years after the starling became common in Connecticut, other birds, especially the flicker, were seldom ejected, or not until all available nesting possibilities about buildings were used and filled up. Never have I seen the flickers actually fight to retain their hole or bird house. On the sanctuary they were exceptionally noisy whenever starlings attempted to take or had taken possession. On one occasion three starlings took part; one remained in the entrance hole of the box and took dry grass that a second brought to it; the third chased off either of the pair of flickers, as it flew near the nest box, which was about 8 feet from the ground on a sawed-off tree in a white-pine grove. On shooting one of the starlings, the other four birds flew away temporarily, and, on examination, I found a thin layer of grass over the flicker’s eggs. In 15 minutes the starlings returned and a second was shot. I removed the grass, and, hiding nearby, I saw nothing more of the third starling; but the flickers returned soon, took possession of the box, and later raised the five young.”

Sydney R. Taber (1921) tells an interesting story of a battle between a male flicker and a pair of starlings for the possession of the flickers’ nest. The flicker had once pulled one of the starlings out of the hole, but, during his absence, both of the starlings entered the hole.

On this second occasion, despairing of being able to pull the two out at long range, so to speak, the Flicker also plunged into the hole. Then followed a battle royal, lasting for what seemed minutes. It was rather ghastly to imagine the blows that were being dealt at closest quarters; not a sound was emitted, but one could imagine what was going on within the hole by the feathers that flew from it. The first bird to emerge--that is, to be pushed out, by fractions of an inch--was one of the Starlings, which then flew away. The fight between the other two birds then continued out of sight until something appeared at the mouth of the hole. This proved to be the tail of the Flicker. When he had backed out of the hole into view once more, it appeared that he and the remaining Starling had clinched in a desperate grapple. With the latter gripping one of the wings of the Flicker, they fell, fluttering and fighting, a distance of nearly 40 feet; but just before touching the ground, they parted and flew in different directions. * * *

The above events occurred a fortnight ago. Since then the Starlings have been in full possession of the hole of contention.

Flickers figure largely in the food of duck hawks; their brightly colored feathers are often found about the aeries. Other hawks take their toll. O. A. Stevens sends me the following note on a sharp-shinned hawk attacking a flicker, perhaps only in sport: “The hawk settled in a partially dead, spreading pine tree, some 8 feet from the top. A flicker perched about 6 feet above him, apparently from curiosity. For some time they remained, the hawk sitting quietly, preening, occasionally casting a glance at the flicker. The latter teetered about on his perch, craning his neck at the hawk and even dropping down a foot or so. After at least 10 minutes, the hawk suddenly darted at the flicker and away they went, the flicker twisting and escaping. It seems odd that an apparently heavy flier like a flicker would escape so easily.”

Mr. Burns (1903) adds the broad-winged hawk to the flicker’s enemies; “a nest of lusty young hawks examined in July, ’01, contained the primaries and rectrices of one or two young Flickers, probably just out of the nest. * * * To the above Mr. Benj. T. Gault adds the Blacksnake--one having been killed and cut open by a farmer’s lad at a place he was stopping at in Reynolds county, Missouri, contained the body of one of these woodpeckers.” I have positively recorded flickers in the food of the marsh hawk, Cooper’s hawk, and red-shouldered hawk; probably they are killed by all the larger hawks and owls. Taverner and Swales (1907) say that the sharpshin flights at Point Pelee discommoded the flickers less than any other species of small birds. “Though at times they seemed uneasy and restless, they were perfectly able to take care of themselves and easily made their escape when attacked. * * * The usual course of procedure of the Flicker, when attacked by a hawk, was to wait until the last minute, when the hawk, in its swoop, was just about to seize its victim, and then dodge quickly to the other side of the limb. In every case observed the ruse worked perfectly, and we found only once the feather remains which proved that once in a while the hawk was a little too quick for the Flicker.”

Mr. Burns (1900) says that the eggs and young are sometimes destroyed by squirrels, weasels, mice, crows, jays, and the red-headed woodpecker. Fred. H. Kennard records in his notes that a pair of flickers, nesting in one of his boxes, were robbed of their eggs by some red squirrels, who ate the eggs in the box, built their own nest in the box, and brought in their young from another nest.

_Fall._--As soon as the young are strong on the wing and the molting season is over, the flickers, old and young, begin to gather into loose flocks or scattered parties, perhaps family parties, late in summer and early in fall. On cold, windy autumn days they may be found in close companionship in hollows and sheltered localities in woodland clearings, protected from the cold winds, and feeding in the bayberry patches and clumps of staghorn sumac. At such times, they lie close and can be easily approached.

In southern Canada and the Northern States, the great bulk of the flickers start to migrate in September, continuing to pass southward during October. Mr. Burns (1900) says of the fall migration: “While the retrograde movements are conducted in larger numbers, being recruited by great numbers of birds of the year, it is scarcely as noticeable, lacking the noise and bustle of Spring arrivals. Like the Robin, its whole nature seems to have undergone a change. It no longer solicits notice by song or display, but becomes shy and suspicious, and while gregarious to a great extent, in flight every one is capable of looking out for itself. The mature birds are the most wary, and by example prepare the young for the dangers of migration and Winter residence in the South, where it is constantly menaced by hunters.”

During migration, they fly rather high, well above the treetops, in widely detached flocks, often far apart, but keeping more or less in touch with each other and sometimes fairly close together; hundreds may be counted, as they pass in a steady stream for hours at a time. Taverner and Swales (1907) report heavy flights across Lake Erie from Point Pelee: “During September it has always been one of the most abundant birds of the Point. Keays reports a flight in 1901 when he noted four hundred September 21.” Long Point, which extends well out from the north shore of Lake Erie, is another favorite crossing place; here, according to L. L. Snyder (1931), “the flight observed by Mr. James Savage on September 30, 1930, was very remarkable, individuals estimated to be from one to two hundred yards apart, forming a scattered and straggling flock, passed in an almost steady stream throughout the morning hours.”

Mr. Burns (1903) writes:

In south New Jersey, in the region of the Upper Delaware Bay, which runs due south, some time in October of every year the migrating Flickers are found flying north just previous to and during a northwest storm. At this time the wind is generally high and the birds fly against it. This peculiarity of flight affects a large territory extending inland from the east shore of the bay some fifteen or twenty miles. While the birds prefer to breast a wind, it is also probable that they are reluctant to cross the lower part of the bay during such a storm which would tend to drive them seaward, rather preferring to return northward to the more narrow river where they could cross in comparative safety.

_Winter._--Winter finds most of the flickers gone from the northern States and southern Canada. Most of the birds wintering in New England seek the milder climate of the seacoast, where they feed in the extensive bayberry patches and on the semidormant insect life in the rows of drift seaweed along the beaches. The few that remain inland during mild winters are usually to be found in sheltered hollows or along the sunny sides of the woods, feeding on the ground or on what berries and dry fruits still remain on the bushes, often in company with merry little winter parties of juncos, tree sparrows, chickadees, nuthatches, and perhaps a downy or hairy woodpecker. Favorite resorts at that season are the southern slopes of the hills overgrown with thick stands of red cedars, mixed with staghorn sumacs, barberries, and other berry-bearing bushes. They probably seek shelter at night in the dense cedar swamps or in the holes excavated for that purpose in icehouses or other buildings, or in hollow trees.

L. H. Walkinshaw, of Battle Creek, Mich., writes to me that there, “in deep winter, flickers can be found in the deep tamarack swamps, coming to the edge during periods of the day. They often flush, even when snow is deep, from mounds on the ground or from dead or dying stubs along the border.”

O. A. Stevens says in his notes: “At my farm home in Kansas, the flickers caused some annoyance by seeking entrance to the barn for winter nights. They enlarged other openings for this purpose and sometimes started openings which would not lead them inside. One bird at least, enlarged the opening about the hayfork track and roosted on the iron track just inside the door.”

Dr. Paul L. Errington (1936) writes an interesting story on the winter-killing of flickers in central Iowa. By a careful study of the droppings of the three birds that he studied, it appeared that they were much weakened by improper food, too large a proportion of indigestible seeds, mainly those of the sumac, and not enough animal food, which ordinarily amounts to more than half of the average food supply.

M. P. Skinner (1928), writing of the Sandhills of North Carolina, says: “Flickers stay in the Sandhills all winter, but the infrequent snowstorms cause them lots of trouble in finding food. On January 10, 1927, I found quite a little coterie of birds had scratched the leaves under a dogwood tree until they had a space twelve feet in diameter more or less cleared of snow. Here, among other species of birds, were two Flickers foraging among the leaves for fallen dogwood berries. These berries were probably eaten until weather conditions became better for insect catching. Even during winter, ants are fairly plentiful for the Sandhill Flickers, especially on warm days.”

COLAPTES CAFER COLLARIS Vigors

RED-SHAFTED FLICKER

PLATE 37

HABITS

This western representative of our well-known eastern flicker is so closely related to it and so similar to it in all its habits that practically all that has been written about the northern flicker would apply equally well to the red-shafted species. The two differ strikingly in coloration, but the color pattern is similar in both, and the fact that they interbreed so freely and extensively where their ranges come together shows their close relationship. The only differences in their habitats, nesting, and feeding habits are due to the differences in environments.

The red-shafted flicker is a wide-ranging species through many types of open country or sparsely wooded regions, from the Rocky Mountains to sea level on the Pacific coast. It is a common bird near human habitations in thinly settled towns and villages and in agricultural regions, as well as in the wilder foothills and mountain slopes up to timberline, but not on the treeless plains or deserts. The Weydemeyers (1928), referring to its haunts in northwestern Montana, give a good idea of its habitat there, which would doubtless apply equally well throughout its range elsewhere; they say: “The Flicker is most abundant about farms and in cut-over woods, nesting commonly near barnyards and in pastures. An observer will note fewer and fewer individuals as he passes from cultivated farms into stump-lands; from there to virgin forests of fir, larch, and yellow pine; thence into the lodgepole pine and white pine woods of the lower part of the Canadian zone; and onward into denser forests of alpine fir, spruce, and arborvitae. But he will find the birds increasing in numbers on the rocky mountain slopes and upward through the Hudsonian zone, where the species ranges to timberline.”

Milton P. Skinner says in his Yellowstone Park notes: “This bird is found at all elevations from the lowest at 5,300 feet to timberline at 9,500 feet, and in practically all kinds of habitat except the largest opens, and even there I have seen it flying across from side to side. It is in the sagebrush areas, in the borderland between forest and open, in detached groves, and even in heavy forest.

“They are often seen on the ground, especially in May, but also in June and July. Sometimes they are in the road. I have seen them frequently in the grass and perched on a bowlder or a prostrate log. In addition to these treeless and brushless localities, I often see flickers on the ground under sagebrushes and greasewood; on the ground in a grove of cedars and limber pines; under aspens, willows, cedars, firs and on the ground amid the stumps of a former fir forest. I have-seen them in groves of mixed lodgepole pines and aspens and in meadows where there were only groves of willow bushes.”

_Courtship._--In the same notes Mr. Skinner says: “On April 29, 1915, I saw a pair of flickers ‘dancing.’ They were on a dead lodgepole, and although there was not much movement of the feet, the body was bent from side to side and there was a constant ‘juggling’ or ‘jigging’ motion. The head was tilted back and the bill pointed up at an angle of sixty degrees, with the neck outstretched. The neck, head, and bill were in constant motion; the motion of the bill reminded me of a musical director’s baton. Intervals of rest alternated with periods of motion; the whole thing lasted perhaps 5 minutes.”

_Nesting._--Major Bendire (1895) says on this subject:

Its favorite nesting sites are old rotten stubs or trees, such as cottonwoods, willows, sycamores, junipers, oaks, and pines. It nests also in holes in banks, in the sides of houses, in gate posts, etc. * * *

Among some peculiar nesting sites of this species the following deserve mention:

Mr. Walter B. Bryant gives the following: “One of these was in a bridge bulkhead, a few feet above the Carson River, Nevada. The interior of the structure was filled with gravel and large stones, among which the eggs were deposited. Another pair used a target butt, at a much-frequented range, as a substitute for a stump. A third nest was in a sand bank, 3 feet from the top and 10 from the creek. This hole was apparently specially prepared, and not one made by a ground squirrel, such holes being sometimes used by these birds.”

Mr. Charles A. Allen, of Nicasio, Calif., found a pair of red-shafted flickers nesting in a similar situation in a creek bank, the burrow containing seven eggs, which he took. About ten days later, happening to pass the same spot, he examined the hole again and found it occupied by a California Screech Owl, which in the meantime had deposited four eggs. Some two weeks subsequently he examined it for a third time, and on this occasion the tenant proved to be a Sparrow Hawk, which was setting on five handsome eggs. There was no nesting material present on any occasion, the eggs lying on some loose dirt.

Others have noted the bank-nesting habit of this flicker, which seems to be rather common. Most of the nests, however, are excavated in trees or stubs, at heights varying from ground level to 100 feet above the ground. We found them nesting commonly in the Huachuca Mountains, Ariz., in the sycamores in the canyons and in the tall pines near the summits at 9,000 feet. A large majority of the nests will be found between 8 and 25 feet above the ground. Dawson (1923) mentions a nest “in a stump only two feet high, and its eggs rested virtually upon the ground.” Walter P. Taylor (1912) mentions a nest in a cavity in a haystack, in the desert regions of Humboldt County, Nev., where there were practically no trees. This flicker also nests frequently in telegraph and other poles, also far too often in buildings, where it drills a hole through the outer wall and lays its eggs on a beam or other flat surface, accumulating enough chips to keep the eggs from rolling.

Florence A. Merriam Bailey (1896) watched a red-shafted flicker excavating its nest-hole, of which she says: “The flicker hung with claws planted in the hole, and with its tail braced at an angle under it, leaned forward to excavate. Using its feet as a pivot, it gradually swung in farther and farther; and when it had gone so far that it had to reach back to throw out its chips, it swung in and out on its feet like an automatic toy wound up for the performance. When it had been building for a week, only the tip of its tail protruded from the nest hole as it worked.”

Mrs. Irene G. Wheelock (1904) says: “The site having been chosen, the male clings to the surface and marks with his bill a more or less regular circle in a series of dots, then begins excavating inside this area, using his bill, not with a sidewise twist, as do many of the woodpecker family, but striking downwards and prying off the chips as with a pickaxe. When his mate has rested and wishes to share in the labor, she calls from a near-by tree and he instantly quits his task.”

Dr. and Mrs. Grinnell (Grinnell, Dixon, and Linsdale, 1930) made the following observations on this species, while excavating its nest-hole:

The bird entered the hole, entirely out of view, at 8:54, reappeared from within at 9:05, when it rested a minute with the head partly out; then it proceeded to bring out from within load after load of chips, which showered down as if of fine, almost sawdust-like size. Forty-five such loads were counted to 9:10, delivered with striking regularity. Twelve loads delivered were counted in one sixty-second period. At 9:10 the bird disappeared again till 9:15, when its head appeared and twenty-seven loads were flipped out in three minutes; then after a long pause, till 9:19, the other flicker arrived, with scythe-whetting note, and both birds flew off. One of them returned at 9:29, flipped out several loads of chips and left at 9:31. Digging in this particular stump must have been easy and hence rapid.

_Eggs._--The red-shafted flicker lays five to twelve eggs to a set. Probably, if the experiment were tried, it would prove to be as prolific an egg layer as its eastern relative, though I have found no evidence to that effect. The eggs are indistinguishable from those of the northern flicker. The measurements of 57 eggs average 28.18 by 21.85 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure =35.56= by 20.32, 27.94 by =24.89=, =25.40= by 20.83, and 27.68 by =19.30= millimeters.

_Young._--Mrs. Wheelock (1904) says of the young: “For nearly three weeks they are fed by regurgitation, and after that time the insects brought are masticated by the parents. * * *

“After they are old enough to leave the nursery, they follow their parents about for nearly two weeks, begging to be fed and gradually learning to hunt for themselves. This lesson is wisely taught by the parents, who place the food under a crevice in the bark, in full sight of the young, who must pick it out or go hungry. The baby cocks his head wisely, looks at it, and proceeds to pull it out and dine.”