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Flicker (I think) ID for California (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter LucaPCP
- Start date
It clearly has a 'gilded flicker' crown in combination with 'red-shafted northern flicker' primaries. How normal that is, and what species that combination makes it, I have no idea.
But... It's important to know the location - just 'California' is not enough.
(It's likely to be more helpful for you if you do risk 'biasing' us by telling us your thoughts/suspicions/guesses/doubts at the outset, because then people can give you answers that are targeted towards your particular problem.)
But... It's important to know the location - just 'California' is not enough.
(It's likely to be more helpful for you if you do risk 'biasing' us by telling us your thoughts/suspicions/guesses/doubts at the outset, because then people can give you answers that are targeted towards your particular problem.)
nartreb
Speak softly and carry a long lens
Gilded should have very restricted range. Your bird has an unusual amount of brown in the crown (notably, extending behind the eye) for a Northern, but it seems that's not unknown. Here's one ID'd on the Cornell website as intergrade (yellow-shafted / red-shafted) Northern: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/assets/photo/297902761-1280px.jpg Which may not be much better, geographically speaking 
Even further afield, there's a local Guatemalan form of Northern that looks a lot like this bird. Not saying yours is a vagrant, just that variation is possible within the Northern species. I rather like the idea that yours is a Northern/Gilded hybrid, but that's the purest of pure speculation.
Even further afield, there's a local Guatemalan form of Northern that looks a lot like this bird. Not saying yours is a vagrant, just that variation is possible within the Northern species. I rather like the idea that yours is a Northern/Gilded hybrid, but that's the purest of pure speculation.
This same photo was posted to a local birding site in the southern San Francisco Bay area, and the bird seems to have been seen in that area. Given that location I think the probabilities favor, in order of likelihood: 1) a Red-shafted Flicker with an unusual amount of brown on its head. 2) A Red-shafted/Yellow-shafted intergrade. Not common in the area, but regular in the winter with a variety of phenotypes. 3) A Red-shafted x Gilded Flicker hybrid - but this would be several hundred kilometers from the known breeding area of Gilded, and Gilded are not known as wanderers. Probably impossible to be sure without genetic analysis of the bird.
