[Umpqua Birds] Intergrade Flicker
- From: Matthew G Hunter <matthewghunter@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: umpquabirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 12 Jan 2015 19:41:31 -0800
HI Folks,
Yesterday morning Daniel and I saw a flicker fly up to one of our
bluebird boxes out front of our house. It had yellowish-salmon underwings,
indicating an intergrade. It began drumming on the box now and then. We
could see it had a red crescent on the back of the head (nape). This is one
characteristic of a male yellow-shafted flicker. It also had a red
"mustache," which is a character of a male red-shafted flicker. So, pretty
clearly an intergrade. We often don't look closely at flickers, but the
color of their head, color of marks on their head, in addition to the color
of their wings in flight, can tell you a lot: whether you have a male or
female, and which form of the species. Several intergrades have been
reported in eBird this winter. I think if we looked more often we would
find them more frequently. I thought I would show some photos of this one.
Photos are through the thick fog, but I think you can see the marks on the
head.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/matthewghunter/sets/72157649851223437/
Matt
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- » [Umpqua Birds] Intergrade Flicker - Matthew G Hunter
