Northern Flicker, Red-Shafted Race

Day 72: Once considered two separate species, Northern Flickers are now believed to be two different races within the same species, Colaptes auratus. The Red-Shafted version (C. auratus cafer) occurs in the western part of the country and the Yellow-Shafted (C. auratus auratus) occurs in the east. Occasional intergrades are seen along the line where the ranges meet and in fact, one showed up in my yard last year displaying the head colouration of a Yellow-Shafted along with distinctive red feather shafts. The pure form of Red-Shafted has a grey face and brown crown, whereas in the Yellow-Shafted, it is reversed (tan face, grey crown). Male Yellow-Shafts wear a black moustache (as did my intergrade) while Red-Shafted's "mo" is red. The flight pattern is the same for both races and is what gives the species its name: the wingbeats are struck in a repeating "flick-flick-flick (glide), flick-flick-flick (glide)" which causes the bird to dip in the air like the loops in a Christmas swag. You might think that Flicker's faddish polka-dot jacket would make the species an easy target for predators, but in fact it provides very effective camouflage, breaking up the bird's silhouette by imitating areas of light and shadow such as would be cast by branches with or without foliage. Flickers often feed hanging upside down, using their tail to brace against a limb for stability and to provide greater power to the thrusts of their beaks. Members of the greater family of Woodpeckers, Flickers drill with a slow, even "tap-tap-tap" rather than rapid jackhammer rapping.