A Flicker of Recognition: Three Distinct Forms, and Their Offspring The common everyday flicker turns out to offer many surprises for birders. Golden yellow underwings distinguish the Gilded Flicker from the Northern Flicker found within the same … Gilded Flicker: Large woodpecker with dark barred and spotted brown back, brown cap, pale gray face and throat, red moustache stripe, white rump, thick black crescent on upper breast, and black spotted, pale buff underparts. This hybrid zone has been of great interest to ornithologists and evolutionary biologists for more than a century. The limited hybridization of the Gilded Flicker with the other forms, especially in light of their widespread hybrid zone, was the basis for the later change to recognize the Gilded Flicker as its own species. It was named for the gold color of its underwings and tail. Below are some tips to help you identify Gilded Flickers. The Gilded Flicker ( Colaptes chrysoides) is a large-sized woodpecker (mean length of 29 cm (11 in)) of the Sonoran, Yuma, and eastern Colorado Desert regions of the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico including all of the Baja Peninsula except the extreme northwestern region. In such places, the Red-shafted and Gilded flickers interbreed freely, producing a summer population that is nearly all hybrids. We have also put together a list of fun Gilded Flicker t-shirts, Gilded Flicker bird patches Arizona Bird Observations Select your season based on your target species. For example, Red-shafted Flicker (C. a. cafer) and Gilded Flicker (C. chrysoides) in North America (Short, 1965) and several (sub)species). Hybridization occurs on a more limited basis between the "Red-shafted" Flicker and the Gilded Flicker (C. chrysoides), a separate species associated with the Sonoran Desert. Although presently consid- 1983), the The oldest recorded Gilded Flicker was at least 6 years, 4 months old and lived in Arizona. Gilded Flicker Colaptes chrysoides In its color pattern, this bird combines some elements from both the Yellow-shafted and Red-shafted forms of Northern Flicker. It may be an "unmistakable" bird, but it can also challenge and sharpen observers. A large and common woodpecker of the saguaro cactus forests of the Sonoran Desert, the Gilded Flicker has the gray face and red mustache of the "red-shafted" form of the Northern Flicker, but the yellow wings of the "yellow-shafted" form. The species occurs in highest densities where there are dense stands of saguaro ( Carnegiea gigantea ), and often builds its nest in saguaro or Mexican giant cardon ( … In addition to this well-studied hybrid zone, other Colaptes species are known to hybridize. In a few places, Gilded Flickers overlap in breeding range with Red-shafted Flickers at middle elevations (Sonoita Creek near Patagonia, Arizona, is one good example).

The Gilded Flicker, which once was thought to be a result of interbreeding between the red-shafted and yellow-shafted Northern Flickers but was ultimately named a species of its own back in the 60s, only lives in the American Southwest and Mexico! The Gilded Flicker is closely associated with the Sonoran Desert ecosystem in the southwestern United States, Baja California, and the Pacific slope of northwestern Mexico. soides (the Gilded Flicker of the southwestern deserts), C. a. chrysocaulosus (Cuba and Grand Cayman), and C. a. mexicanoides (highland southern Mexico to Nic-aragua; Short 1965, 1982). The gilded flicker (Colaptes chrysoides) is a large-sized woodpecker (mean length of 29 cm (11 in)) of the Sonoran, Yuma, and eastern Colorado Desert regions of the southwestern United … Gilded Flickers A Gilded Flicker is a fun bird to see while bird watching.