Part 39

_Plumages._--The sequence of plumages and molts, from fledgling to 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: