Northern Flicker

Colaptes auratus
STANFORD LOCATIONS:

The "Red-shafted" form is an uncommon to fairly common migrant and winter resident throughout campus. Less common in summer, though a few pairs likely breed here. Often forages in mature trees, but forages on the ground (usually on ants) more often than any other woodpecker. "Yellow-shafted" Flickers and intergrades between Red-shafted and Yellow-shafted are fairly rare here, occurring occasionally in fall and winter.
Nest
Location
Nest
Type
Eggs
Mating System
Dev.
Parental Care
Primary &
2ndary Diet
Foraging
Strategy
MF
I: 11-14 DAYS
ALTRICIAL
6 feet - 15 feet
(To - 100 feet)
MF (?)
5-8
(3-12)
MONOG
F: 25-28 DAYS
MF
HAWKS
BARK GLEAN
BREEDING: Nearly ubiquitous below tree line where nest sites and open ground for feeding occur together. 1 brood, 2 in s.
DISPLAYS: Courtship: noisy, active, with calling, drumming, wing and tail flashing, billing, and bobbing while pair face each other. Aggressive displays include bill pointing, head swinging/bobbing, tail spreading.
NEST: Prefer snag; will use variety of cavities: poles and posts, houses, banks, haystacks, boxes. Occ usurp kingfisher and Bank Swallow burrows. Cavities often perennial. Excavation time varies, averaging 12 days; male usu selects site.
EGGS: White. 1.1" (28 mm).
DIET: Esp ants (more than any other N.A. bird); also occ seeds, acorns, nuts, grain. Young fed regurgitant.
CONSERVATION: Winters within N.A.
NOTES: Most terrestrial of N.A. woodpeckers. Starlings, squirrels, screech owls, kestrels may usurp holes. Large clutch sizes usu represent output of 2 females. Both sexes brood, but mostly female. Hybrid zone between Yellow- and Red-shafted subspecies appears stable; no evidence for preferential mating of birds with similar plumage-types within hybrid zone. Early clutches larger than later ones; clutches larger in n. Clutches of Gilded Flicker subspecies significantly smaller, avg 4.
ESSAYS: Variation in Clutch Sizes; Great Plains Hybrids; Walking vs. Hopping; Species and Speciation; Average Clutch Size; Hybridization.
REFERENCES: Grudzien et al., 1987; Koenig, 1984; Moore and Koenig, 1986.

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Except for Stanford Locations, the material in this species treatment is taken, with permission, from The Birder's Handbook (Paul Ehrlich, David Dobkin, & Darryl Wheye, Simon & Schuster, NY. 1988).