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Seattle, Washington, USA (1 Viewer)

Greetings! I'm posting on behalf of my dad, a bird-watcher located on Bainbridge Island, across the Puget Sound from Seattle, Washington. Today he spotted this bird, but he's been unable to identify it. He thinks it looks like a flicker (same size, very similar features), but it's the wrong color. Any ideas as to what species this mysterious bird might be? (I've attached a photo but it isn't great quality.) Thanks in advance for your help!
 

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Look at the flickers, in the woodpecker family (Picidae).

Welcome on Birdforum.

Thanks for the welcome! I'm pretty sure he wasn't able to identify it as a flicker because of the coloring, even researching online, but he said that's the closest he could come to what specie it looked like. I don't know anything about birds, myself, so I'm not sure what info I could give here that would help.
He is super familiar with his backyard birds--he's never come across one he couldn't identify... Maybe it's a particular type of flicker that isn't as common?
 
Northern Flicker in Washington....I have to a admit, the white ring around the black dot is a bit confusing and while I have not seen one like this, perhaps it is just an anomaly ....but it is a flicker ,jim
 
I have to a admit, the white ring around the black dot is a bit confusing

I suspect that just to be an artifact of the lighting produced by the camera, which would explain some of the confusion. Northern Flicker for me as well.
 
Yep; yellow-shafted in the east, and red-shafted in the west, so this one will be red. The name refers to the color of the shafts of the wing and tail feathers.

The mostly gray face of this bird would suggest that it is indeed the red-shafted form and that is certainly what would normally be expected in the Seattle area. But the yellow-shafted form wanders widely and the two forms interbreed extensively; it is not that uncommon to see birds that are intergrades here in California, or even ones that appear to be pure yellow-shafted - at least in winter. I expect the situation is similar in Washington.
 
I have a recorded 'yellow-shafted in Washington / Oregon area as I lived there for most of my life. So it is possible to have range wandering and in today's 'climate change world' this is even more the case I believe as range maps are being somewhat pressed. In this case, I would say red-shafted just to stay on the common side of things. jim
 
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