He gives, as its range: “Sierra San Pedro Martir (San José, 2,500 feet, near La Grulla at 7,200 feet, and near Vallecitos at 7,500 feet) and Sierra Juárez (Laguna Hanson, 5,200 feet).” Elsewhere (1928b), he calls it a “common resident on the western slopes of the Sierra Juárez and Sierra San Pedro Martír; in winter invading westwardly to the seacoast. Breeds in Upper Sonoran and Transition zones.”
Its habits are probably similar to those of the species elsewhere.
Griffing Bancroft has sent me the measurements of a set of eight eggs, which average 26.87 by 22.16 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure 28.2 by 22.0, 26.8 by 22.8, and 26.2 by 20.7 millimeters.
COLAPTES CHRYSOIDES CHRYSOIDES (Malherbe)
CAPE GILDED FLICKER
HABITS
Because Malherbe’s name was given to the first gilded flicker to be described, and because his type came from the Cape region of Baja California, this race becomes the type race of the species. Its range extends from about latitude 28° N. to the southern extremity of Baja California. It is about the same size as its nearest relative to the northward, brunnescens, but is decidedly lighter in coloration. It is smaller than mearnsi and somewhat darker in coloration.
William Brewster (1902) says of its haunts: “Mr. Belding and Mr. Frazar agree as to the rarity of the Gilded Flicker on the higher mountains, where only a few individuals were seen by the former, and but two (both females, taken on the Sierra de la Laguna, April 29) obtained by the latter. The bird’s true home is evidently at the bases of the mountains, and among the foothills extending thence to the shores of the Pacific on the south and west, and to the Gulf on the east. Throughout this region it is a common species, although not so numerously represented as Melanerpes uropygialis. On the arid plains near the coast it breeds in the stems of the giant cactus.”
Griffing Bancroft (1930) says of this species in central Baja California, south of latitude 28°:
The birds are extremely wild, often flushing from a distance of a quarter of a mile. They lay in old cavities and, probably, also in those that are new; scarred sahuaro dries so rapidly that a definite determination on this point was not possible. The nests are usually twenty feet or more above the ground and the cavities are generous; an eight-inch diameter and a two-foot depth are not unusual. Occasionally they will use natural openings in the cardón or holes that have been chopped open by honey gatherers.