Woodpecker Identification. (1 Viewer)

I am loving this, a new bird almost everyday, and today this bird came along.

Central Nebraska, 32°F

Northern Flicker (Colaptes auratus) 'Yellow-shafted'.
Great Woodpecker!
JanJ

Yep, Northern Flicker.

What's the difference between colaptes and picus? They sure look alike to me...

Thanks all.

One thing I noticed that might be the difference is the spot on the face, my bird it is black, but on other birds the color is red.


-Drake.

woodpecker id

Hey there. It is for sure a Yellow-shafted Northern Flicker. Looking at bird guide right now. The yellow has a brown face with black spot. Just like your picture. Where the red varity has a gray face with red spot.

Klant said:

What's the difference between colaptes and picus? They sure look alike to me...

Click to expand...

The "picus" terminology I believe is quite old and since the two Flickers have been lumped as a single species they are currently classified as follows:

Northern Flicker, Red-shafted Form = Colaptes auratus cafer
Northern Flicker, Yellow-shafted form = Colaptes auratus auratus

The Yellow shafted can be identified by the "yellow color in underwings" as well as both the male and female have a red nape patch. Also, the male has the black malar stipe vs a red strip on the Red-shafted.

Note that there is a large area of the country where these two subspecies interbreed and those offspring can have varying charcteristics.

Below is from www.mbr-pwrc.usgs.gov/bbs/taxon.html
"However, even within species there are sometimes discernible subunits, which are called subspecies. An example would be the Northern Flicker. In the eastern United States, it is called the Yellow-shafted Flicker because of its bright yellow areas under the wings and tail. In western flickers, these areas are red rather than yellow, and the bird is appropriately called the Red-shafted Flicker. In the areas where the ranges of the two overlap, considerable interbreeding results in hybrids between the two. The Yellow-shafted Flicker is given the name Colaptes auratus auratus while the Red-shafted Flicker is Colaptes auratus cafer. They are considered to be the same species but are recognizably different. In the species lists, subspecies that are recognizably different will be mentioned. For example, the Red-shafted Flicker is called Colaptes a. cafer where the a. stands for auratus. The Yellow- shafted Flicker, the nominate form, is referred to as Colaptes auratus. Sometimes, two closely related species hybridize."

Flicker for sure. One of the USA's most beautiful birds (IMHO). Good for you to have them visiting your feeders!

During a recent birding trip over to Cheyenne Bottoms/Quivera National Wildlife Refuge near Great Bend, Kansas, a birding buddy and I observed both and Yellow-shafted and Red-shafted Northern Flickers. We also saw a couple of hybirds which exhibited characteristics of both species. The two species do overlap in Kansas.