COLAPTES CAFER COLLARIS Vigors

RED-SHAFTED FLICKER

Plate [37]

HABITS

This western representative of our well-known eastern flicker is so closely related to it and so similar to it in all its habits that practically all that has been written about the northern flicker would apply equally well to the red-shafted species. The two differ strikingly in coloration, but the color pattern is similar in both, and the fact that they interbreed so freely and extensively where their ranges come together shows their close relationship. The only differences in their habitats, nesting, and feeding habits are due to the differences in environments.

The red-shafted flicker is a wide-ranging species through many types of open country or sparsely wooded regions, from the Rocky Mountains to sea level on the Pacific coast. It is a common bird near human habitations in thinly settled towns and villages and in agricultural regions, as well as in the wilder foothills and mountain slopes up to timberline, but not on the treeless plains or deserts. The Weydemeyers (1928), referring to its haunts in northwestern Montana, give a good idea of its habitat there, which would doubtless apply equally well throughout its range elsewhere; they say: “The Flicker is most abundant about farms and in cut-over woods, nesting commonly near barnyards and in pastures. An observer will note fewer and fewer individuals as he passes from cultivated farms into stump-lands; from there to virgin forests of fir, larch, and yellow pine; thence into the lodgepole pine and white pine woods of the lower part of the Canadian zone; and onward into denser forests of alpine fir, spruce, and arborvitae. But he will find the birds increasing in numbers on the rocky mountain slopes and upward through the Hudsonian zone, where the species ranges to timberline.”

Milton P. Skinner says in his Yellowstone Park notes: “This bird is found at all elevations from the lowest at 5,300 feet to timberline at 9,500 feet, and in practically all kinds of habitat except the largest opens, and even there I have seen it flying across from side to side. It is in the sagebrush areas, in the borderland between forest and open, in detached groves, and even in heavy forest.

“They are often seen on the ground, especially in May, but also in June and July. Sometimes they are in the road. I have seen them frequently in the grass and perched on a bowlder or a prostrate log. In addition to these treeless and brushless localities, I often see flickers on the ground under sagebrushes and greasewood; on the ground in a grove of cedars and limber pines; under aspens, willows, cedars, firs; and on the ground amid the stumps of a former fir forest. I have-seen them in groves of mixed lodgepole pines and aspens and in meadows where there were only groves of willow bushes.”

Courtship.—In the same notes Mr. Skinner says: “On April 29, 1915, I saw a pair of flickers ‘dancing.’ They were on a dead lodgepole, and although there was not much movement of the feet, the body was bent from side to side and there was a constant ‘juggling’ or ‘jigging’ motion. The head was tilted back and the bill pointed up at an angle of sixty degrees, with the neck outstretched. The neck, head, and bill were in constant motion; the motion of the bill reminded me of a musical director’s baton. Intervals of rest alternated with periods of motion; the whole thing lasted perhaps 5 minutes.”

Nesting.—Major Bendire (1895) says on this subject:

Its favorite nesting sites are old rotten stubs or trees, such as cottonwoods, willows, sycamores, junipers, oaks, and pines. It nests also in holes in banks, in the sides of houses, in gate posts, etc. * * *

Among some peculiar nesting sites of this species the following deserve mention:

Mr. Walter B. Bryant gives the following: “One of these was in a bridge bulkhead, a few feet above the Carson River, Nevada. The interior of the structure was filled with gravel and large stones, among which the eggs were deposited. Another pair used a target butt, at a much-frequented range, as a substitute for a stump. A third nest was in a sand bank, 3 feet from the top and 10 from the creek. This hole was apparently specially prepared, and not one made by a ground squirrel, such holes being sometimes used by these birds.”

Mr. Charles A. Allen, of Nicasio, Calif., found a pair of red-shafted flickers nesting in a similar situation in a creek bank, the burrow containing seven eggs, which he took. About ten days later, happening to pass the same spot, he examined the hole again and found it occupied by a California Screech Owl, which in the meantime had deposited four eggs. Some two weeks subsequently he examined it for a third time, and on this occasion the tenant proved to be a Sparrow Hawk, which was setting on five handsome eggs. There was no nesting material present on any occasion, the eggs lying on some loose dirt.

Others have noted the bank-nesting habit of this flicker, which seems to be rather common. Most of the nests, however, are excavated in trees or stubs, at heights varying from ground level to 100 feet above the ground. We found them nesting commonly in the Huachuca Mountains, Ariz., in the sycamores in the canyons and in the tall pines near the summits at 9,000 feet. A large majority of the nests will be found between 8 and 25 feet above the ground. Dawson (1923) mentions a nest “in a stump only two feet high, and its eggs rested virtually upon the ground.” Walter P. Taylor (1912) mentions a nest in a cavity in a haystack, in the desert regions of Humboldt County, Nev., where there were practically no trees. This flicker also nests frequently in telegraph and other poles, also far too often in buildings, where it drills a hole through the outer wall and lays its eggs on a beam or other flat surface, accumulating enough chips to keep the eggs from rolling.

Florence A. Merriam Bailey (1896) watched a red-shafted flicker excavating its nest-hole, of which she says: “The flicker hung with claws planted in the hole, and with its tail braced at an angle under it, leaned forward to excavate. Using its feet as a pivot, it gradually swung in farther and farther; and when it had gone so far that it had to reach back to throw out its chips, it swung in and out on its feet like an automatic toy wound up for the performance. When it had been building for a week, only the tip of its tail protruded from the nest hole as it worked.”

Mrs. Irene G. Wheelock (1904) says: “The site having been chosen, the male clings to the surface and marks with his bill a more or less regular circle in a series of dots, then begins excavating inside this area, using his bill, not with a sidewise twist, as do many of the woodpecker family, but striking downwards and prying off the chips as with a pickaxe. When his mate has rested and wishes to share in the labor, she calls from a near-by tree and he instantly quits his task.”

Dr. and Mrs. Grinnell (Grinnell, Dixon, and Linsdale, 1930) made the following observations on this species, while excavating its nest-hole:

The bird entered the hole, entirely out of view, at 8:54, reappeared from within at 9:05, when it rested a minute with the head partly out; then it proceeded to bring out from within load after load of chips, which showered down as if of fine, almost sawdust-like size. Forty-five such loads were counted to 9:10, delivered with striking regularity. Twelve loads delivered were counted in one sixty-second period. At 9:10 the bird disappeared again till 9:15, when its head appeared and twenty-seven loads were flipped out in three minutes; then after a long pause, till 9:19, the other flicker arrived, with scythe-whetting note, and both birds flew off. One of them returned at 9:29, flipped out several loads of chips and left at 9:31. Digging in this particular stump must have been easy and hence rapid.

Eggs.—The red-shafted flicker lays five to twelve eggs to a set. Probably, if the experiment were tried, it would prove to be as prolific an egg layer as its eastern relative, though I have found no evidence to that effect. The eggs are indistinguishable from those of the northern flicker. The measurements of 57 eggs average 28.18 by 21.85 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure 35.56 by 20.32, 27.94 by 24.89, 25.40 by 20.83, and 27.68 by 19.30 millimeters.

Young.—Mrs. Wheelock (1904) says of the young: “For nearly three weeks they are fed by regurgitation, and after that time the insects brought are masticated by the parents. * * *

“After they are old enough to leave the nursery, they follow their parents about for nearly two weeks, begging to be fed and gradually learning to hunt for themselves. This lesson is wisely taught by the parents, who place the food under a crevice in the bark, in full sight of the young, who must pick it out or go hungry. The baby cocks his head wisely, looks at it, and proceeds to pull it out and dine.”

Plumages.—The sequence of plumages and molts, from fledgling to adult, in the red-shafted flicker is similar to that of the northern flicker, but there is one marked difference in the color pattern in the juvenal plumage; whereas in auratus young birds of both sexes have black malar patches, in cafer only the young male has the red malar patches. Kidgway (1914) describes the juvenal male of the red-shafted flicker as “similar to the adult male, but coloration duller, gray of throat, etc., duller, more brownish, black jugular patch smaller and less sharply defined, black spots on under parts less sharply defined, less rounded, feathers of pileum indistinctly tipped with paler, and red malar stripes less bright, less uniform, and black terminal area on under side of tail not sharply defined.” The young female is similar to the young male, but the malar region is grayish brown instead of red. The juvenal plumage is worn through summer, and a complete molt during fall produces a first-winter plumage that is practically adult. Adults have a complete annual molt late in summer and fall.

A most interesting and unique case, among American birds at least, of hybridizing on an extensive scale over a wide region occurs between Colaptes auratus and Colaptes cafer. We found this most beautifully illustrated in southwestern Saskatchewan, where pure-blooded birds of both species were taken, together with quite a series of hybrid birds showing all the intermediate grades of plumage. Almost all the males showed some traces of the red malar stripes of cafer, and nearly all showed some traces of the red nuchal crescent of auratus; the other characters seemed to be less constant. I collected a pure-blooded male auratus and a nearly pure-blooded cafer female, which were apparently mated. And two young in juvenal plumage, one almost pure cafer and the other equally near auratus, were taken from the same family.

Although the general color patterns of the two species are strikingly similar, or parallel, the characters that separate them are radically qualitative rather than quantitative, so that the numerous hybrids cannot by any means be considered as intermediates between subspecies. No two species of a genus could well present more striking contrasts in coloration in such similar patterns.

In one species the quills are red, in the other yellow; the male has a red malar stripe in one and a black stripe in the other; neither sex in cafer has the red nuchal crescent, while both sexes have it in auratus; cafer has the throat and fore neck gray and the top of the head and hind neck brown, while these colors are reversed in auratus. These contrasting colors may be blended or mixed in an almost endless variety of patterns in the hybrids; and the patterns are often asymmetrical, the opposite sides of the bird being quite different. Some specimens of cafer show the first traces of auratus blood by the presence of a few black feathers in the malar stripe, or traces of the red nuchal crescent. Slight traces of cafer blood in auratus appear with a mixture of red in the black malar strip, or with a tinge of orange or reddish in the wings or tail. Between these two extremes there is every degree of blending or mixture of the characters.

For many years after these interesting hybrids were discovered and described by Baird (1858), they were known only from the upper Missouri and Yellowstone River region. Later they were found to be widely distributed from the western border of the Great Plains westward to the Pacific coast, and from Texas to southern Canada. While the center of abundance of birds showing thoroughly mixed characters seems to lie between the Great Plains and the Rocky Mountains, evidence of hybrid blood is much more widely dispersed in a gradually diminishing degree, more strongly westward and to a lesser degree eastward. Dr. J. A. Allen (1892), in his excellent paper on this subject, says: “Specimens with a slight amount of red in the malar stripe are represented in the material I have examined from Massachusetts, Long Island, New Jersey (five specimens), Pennsylvania, Virginia, Florida (several), Louisiana (several), Tennessee, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois (several), Michigan (two), and Minnesota. They seem to be quite as frequent along the Atlantic seaboard as at any point east of the Mississippi River.”

Food.—Professor Beal’s (1910) study of 118 stomachs of the two western races of the red-shafted flicker showed that 54 percent of the food was animal and 46 percent vegetable matter. Of the animal food, beetles constituted 3 percent, most of which were harmful; there were only a few predatory carabids; ants made up 45 percent of the year’s food; other Hymenoptera totaled 1 percent, and miscellaneous items, such as caterpillars, crickets, and spiders, amounted to 5 percent of the food.

Of the vegetable food, acorns formed 10 percent of the yearly food; grains, including rye, corn, barley, and oats, amounted to 4 percent; fruits, averaging 15 percent, included pears, apples, grapes, cherries, and prunes; and the other 17 percent was made up of wild fruits, such as pepperberries, elderberries, and gooseberries and the seeds of the poison oak and sumac and of a few weeds. He says of the poison-oak seeds:

The consumption of these seeds would be a decided benefit to man if they were ground up and destroyed in the stomachs. Unfortunately they are either regurgitated or pass through the intestinal tract uninjured and ready to germinate. The action of the stomach simply removes the outer covering, a white, wax-like substance, which is probably very nutritious, and is evidently relished by many birds. Birds are probably the most active agents in the dissemination of these noxious shrubs. On the other hand, these seeds, which are wonderfully abundant, afford food for thousands of birds during the winter, when other food is hard to obtain, and thus enable the birds to tide over the cold season to do their good work of destroying insects the next summer.

Johnson A. Neff (1928) says that “in a great many instances they are known to feed on the larvæ of the codling moth”; and that “ants were the largest item of food for the year, averaging 40.30%, taken during every month; several stomachs held over 2,000 each, and many of them contained over 500.” Among the vegetable food he lists manzanita berries and seeds and such wild fruits as madrona, dogwood, haw, serviceberry, elderberry, Oregon crab, and huckleberry; seeds of poison oak averaged 7.5 percent, but in December the percentage was 33.3.

Referring to the fruit-eating habits of this flicker in Los Angeles County, Calif., Robert S. Woods (1932) writes:

Fortunately for the grower, and perhaps for the birds as well, the rind of an orange is impervious to the attacks of any ordinary bird, though when once opened the fruit is well liked by many of them. Only the Red-shafted Flicker (Colaptes cafer collaris) is able to chisel through the tough skin; after making a round opening large enough for the insertion of its bill, it scoops out a large portion of the pulp with its tongue. Examples of this sort of damage, however, are infrequent and usually, as it seems, in oranges which have fallen to the ground, where they are more easily reached.

The flicker’s attacks on avocados appear more serious, though this is partly due to the smaller numbers of the fruit available. Avocados which hang near a convenient perch are often found to have a roughly circular hole extending through to the seed. In a few of the fruits these holes have been considerably enlarged, but usually they are not much larger than the base of the bird’s bill.

Jack C. von Bloeker, Jr. (1935), saw three red-shafted flickers capture scarab “beetles in flycatcher fashion. In each case, the bird attained a position behind its intended victim, then, taking up the erratic zigzag course of the beetle, suddenly swooped down and captured it in mid-air.”

Major Bendire (1895) also says: “Besides the usual insects and larvæ upon which this species feeds, I have seen it catch grasshoppers, both on the ground and on the wing, and it is likewise very fond of wild strawberries.”

Behavior.—I can find nothing in the behavior or general habits of the red-shafted flicker that is essentially different from the habits of the northern flicker. It has the same annoying habit of drumming on the resonant parts of dwellings at early hours in the morning, which is quite disturbing to sleepers. It also does considerable damage to buildings by drilling holes in the eaves or walls for nesting or roosting places, spending winter nights or even stormy days in such sheltered retreats. John G. Tyler (1913) says on this subject:

Unfortunately these handsome birds have fallen into disfavor among a large number of both city dwellers and country residents, on account of their habit of drilling holes in the gable ends of buildings. When once a house has been selected it seems that nothing short of death will cause them to cease their drilling operations until one, and in some cases three or four, holes have been cut through the outer wall of the building. Whether these holes, which are generally made in the winter, are excavated for roosting places or simply through a sort of nervous energy seems a matter of doubt; but certain it is that the birds spend much time in them as soon as they succeed in completing their work. It is a common sight, on rainy days, to see a Flicker’s head peering out from his open doorway.

The speed in flight of the red-shafted flicker has been recorded as from 25 to 27 miles an hour, as measured with the speedometer of an automobile.

Grinnell and Storer (1924) write of its habits:

The tramper in almost any part of the Yosemite region can hardly fail to at least hear one or more Red-shafted Flickers in a half-day’s circuit. Although these birds are never seen in true flocks, he may flush from favorable places as many as 6 of them within a few yards. This is particularly true on the floor of Yosemite Valley during the autumn months. This omnivorous woodpecker then almost completely forsakes the timber and forages in the brush patches, eating berries of various sorts, especially cascara; it often seeks the open meadows where it gathers ants and grasshoppers.

The birds flush one or two at a time, often not until the observer is almost upon them; then the sudden flapping of broad pinkish-red wings, the view of the white rump patch fully displayed, leave no doubt in the observer’s mind as to the identity. A bird seldom flies far before alighting, not against an upright tree trunk as with most other woodpeckers, but perching on a branch, to bow deeply this way and that and perhaps utter its explosive claip.

Voice.—The notes of the red-shafted flicker are almost identical with those of the northern flicker, though George F. Simmons (1925) evidently thinks that the voice is “much coarser, rougher, and heavier, * * * easily distinguished when the two are heard calling near each other.”

Field marks.—The white rump is the most conspicuous recognition mark for both species, and the color pattern is similar for both, but the flashing colors in the wings and tail, as well as the other contrasting colors, will serve to distinguish the red-shafted from the yellow-shafted species.

Winter.—During the winter that I spent in Pasadena, flickers were common or abundant all winter in an arroyo on the outskirts of the city. I could always find them picking up food among the dry leaves on the ground, or flying about among the large sycamores and live oaks. On a bright, sunny morning, after a frosty night, they could be seen perched in the topmost branches of the tallest trees, which were the first to catch the warmth of the rising sun. On February 14, 1929, I saw two males perched close together facing each other, bowing and nodding, or bobbing up and down, as if beginning to feel the urge of spring.

DISTRIBUTION

Range.—Western North America south to the Isthmus of Tehuantepec.

Breeding range.—The red-shafted flicker breeds north to southeastern Alaska (Sitka and Portage Cove); central British Columbia (158-mile House and Horse Lake); west-central Alberta (Jasper House); southern Saskatchewan (Cypress Hills); and North Dakota (Fort Union, Oakdale, and Fort Clark). East to central North Dakota (Fort Clark); South Dakota (Reliance and Yankton); northwestern Nebraska (Chadron); Colorado (Fort Morgan, Denver, Colorado Springs, and Beulah); extreme western Oklahoma (Kenton); central New Mexico (Santa Fe, Cloudcroft, and Mesilla); western Chihuahua (San Luis Mountains and Pinos Altos); Durango (Rio Sestin, Arroyo del Buey, and Durango City); Tamaulipas (Ciudad Victoria); Hilaygo (Real del Monte); Vera Cruz (Jalapa and Orizaba); and eastern Oaxaca (Villa Alta and Totontepec). South to Oaxaca (Totontepec); Guerrero (Omilteme); and Jalisco (Zapotlan and Volcan de Colima). From this southwestern point the species ranges north through the mountains of western Mexico, including northern Baja California and (formerly) Guadalupe Island, California, Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia, to southeastern Alaska (Sitka).

Winter range.—The red-shafted flicker is a resident species over most of its range, withdrawing from the more northern parts only during severe winters. At this season it is found north regularly to southern British Columbia (Comox, Okanagan, and Edgewood); northern Montana (Fortine and Great Falls); eastern Wyoming (Midwest); and rarely southeastern South Dakota (Yankton).

The range as outlined applies to the entire species, of which four subspecies or geographic races are now recognized. The typical form, known as the northwestern flicker (Colaptes c. cafer), is found in the northern Pacific coast regions from southeastern Alaska and western British Columbia south to northern California. The red-shafted flicker (C. c. collaris) occurs over all the remaining parts of the range except for certain mountainous areas in northern Baja California and Guadalupe Island, occupied by the San Pedro flicker (C. c. martirensis) and the now extinct Guadalupe flicker (C. c. rufipileus).

Migration.—Such migratory movements as are made by this species cannot be satisfactorily portrayed by the use of dates. The most conspicuous migration is vertical rather than lateral, for during fall and winter in the eastern part of the range there is a more or less well-defined movement east from the Rocky Mountain region onto the Great Plains. At these seasons the species may travel eastward to Iowa (Forest City, Boone, and Des Moines); Missouri (Kansas City); Arkansas (Van Buren); southeastern Oklahoma (Caddo); and eastern Texas (Gainesville, Waco, Somerset, and Brownsville).

Spring migration.—In the northern part of the breeding range, from which the species appears to withdraw in winter with more or less regularity, the following are early dates of spring arrival: South Dakota—White River, March 28; Yankton, April 1. North Dakota—McKenzie County, March 31; Arnegard, April 11. Alberta—Banff, April 3; Warner, April 24; Edmonton, April 29. Alaska—Kupreanof Island, April 12.

Fall migration.—Late dates of departure from northern areas are: Alaska—Wrangell, November 26. Alberta—Jasper, September 8; Henry House, September 22. North Dakota—Grafton, October 7 (one was collected in the Red River Valley on December 6, 1924). South Dakota—Faulkton, October 15.

Although red-shafted flickers have been banded in considerable numbers, the Biological Survey files do not contain any data indicative of an extensive flight from the point of banding. There are, however, many cases of recapture in succeeding seasons at the banding station.

Casual records.—Among the few records where this species has been collected or observed outside its normal range are the following: One was taken at Grafton, N. Dak., April 19, 1925, and another was shot near Winnipeg, Manitoba, September 30, 1904. There are two records for northern Alberta, one at Fort Chipewyan, May 21, 1893, and the other at Smiths Portage, June 8, 1908. Other records, some of which are from points farther east (as Minnesota), are for hybrids between this species and C. auratus.