American Northern Flicker Habitats: Brown Body, Cavity Nest, White Egg

Summary: North American northern flicker habitats from Canada through Mexico and Caribbean and Central America get brown bodies from white eggs in cavity nests.

northern flicker (Colaptes auratus) in Seedskadee National Wildlife Refuge, Sweetwater County, southwestern Wyoming; June 7, 2006: Tom Koerner/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Public Domain, via USFWS National Digital Library

North American northern flicker habitats adjust to cultivation through Picidae family predatory wildlife associations with ants and to naturalism through distribution ranges from Canada southward through Mexico and Caribbean and Central America.

Northern flickers bear their common name from their call and their flashing white-spotted plumage and the scientific name Colaptes auratus from their wood-pecking and golden underwings. Ornithologists consider boreal, Cayman, collared, Cuban, Guadalupe, Guatemalan, Mexican and red-shafted subspecies subsequent to Carl Linnaeus's (May 23, 1707-Jan. 10, 1787) nominate Colaptes auratus auratus classification. Linnaeus's eastern-dwelling, yellow-shafted flickers from 1758 and Johann Gmelin's (Aug. 8, 1748-Nov. 1, 1804) western-dwelling red-shafted (Colaptes auratus cafer, pecking, golden infield) northerners from 1788 dominate.

Nine-year lifespans expect forest edges, open coniferous, deciduous, mature, mixed or second-growth forests, orchards, parklands, riparian woodlands, suburban backyards, tree-edged farmlands and tree-scattered fields and grasslands.

March through July facilitate brooding one three- to 14-egg clutch, followed by another if the first fails, up to 100 feet (30.48 meters) above the ground.

Parents-to-be gut 2- to 4-inch- (5.08- to 10.16-centimeter-) long, 3-inch- (7.62-centimeter-) wide entrances, with tunnels, in dead stubs, fence-posts, heart rot-weakened live trees and utility poles. They have woodchip-lined cavity nests within 10- to 36-inch (25.4- to 91.44-centimeter) by 7- to 8-inch (17.78- to 20.32-centimeter) tunnels habitable within 15 to 28 days. Day-shift mothers-to-be and night-shift fathers-to-be implement 11- to 13-day incubations of 0.75- to 1.42-inch (19- to 36-millimeter) by 0.63- to 1.29-inch (16- to 33-millimeter) white eggs.

Agricultural, golf-course and suburban pesticides, land clearances and predatory Cooper's hawks, feral goats, raccoons, sharp-shinned hawks, snakes, squirrels and starlings jeopardize North American northern flicker habitats.

Fathers-to-be keep elliptical, oval or subelliptical, glossy, smooth eggs warm and hatchlings with closed eyes, egg tooth-tipped bills and successively brown-orange, red and black skin fed.

Nestlings lack feather quills for six days, learn to see with unsealed eyes as 10-day-olds and, at tunnel ends, live off regurgitated insects in paternal bills. They move from cavity nest interiors to summits within 17 to 18 days, to entrance holes as 21-day-olds and to nearby roosts as 25- to 28-day-olds. Adults need ants, beetles, butterflies, fruits, moths and snails and bayberry, dogwood, elderberry, grape, hackberry, poison ivy, poison oak, sumac, sunflower, thistle and wild cherry seeds.

North American northern flicker habitats up to 6,889.76 feet (2,100 meters) above sea level offer winter-coldest temperatures at minus 45 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 42.77 degrees Celsius).

Aspen, bayberry, black-gum, dogwood, elderberry, grape, hackberry, oak, pine, poison ivy, poison oak, sumac, sunflower, thistle, Virginia creeper and wild cherry promote northern flicker life cycles.

Black mustaches and no mustaches versus red mustaches and no mustaches qualify as respective hallmarks of yellow-vaned males and females and of red-vaned males and females. Black V-marked breasts, black-patterned brown plumage, black-spotted backs, bellies, flanks and wings, down-curved bills, flared, long, pointed-tipped tails, rounded, slim heads and white-patched rumps reveal adults. Fast-beat, gliding undulations on 1.65- to 2.09-inch (4.2- to 5.3-centimeter) wingspans suggest 1.10- to 1.29-inch- (2.8- to 3.3-centimeter-) long, 3.88- to 5.64-ounce (110- to 160-gram) adults.

North American northern flicker habitats tender courtship- and territory-related falling-, rising-toned, loud, rolling rattles, even-spaced, loud, rapid drumming, loud kyerr calls and rhythmic, soft wick-a-wick-a calls.

illustration of eggs of northern flicker (Colaptes auratus) under synonymous common name of yellow-shafted flicker; Illustrations of the Nests and Eggs of Birds of Ohio, Plate LIV, figure 5, opposite page 188: Public Domain, via Biodiversity Heritage Library

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

northern flicker (Colaptes auratus) in Seedskadee National Wildlife Refuge, Sweetwater County, southwestern Wyoming; June 7, 2006: Tom Koerner/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Public Domain, via USFWS National Digital Library @ https://digitalmedia.fws.gov/cdm/singleitem/collection/natdiglib/id/18581/rec/4

illustration of eggs of northern flicker (Colaptes auratus) under synonymous common name of yellow-shafted flicker; Illustrations of the Nests and Eggs of Birds of Ohio, Plate LIV, figure 5, opposite page 188: Public Domain, via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/34908331

For further information:

Baicich, Paul J.; and Harrison, Colin J.O. Nests, Eggs, and Nestlings of North American Birds. Second edition. Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press, Princeton Field Guides, 2005.

Bangs, Outram. April 1898. "Some New Races of Birds From Eastern North America: Colaptes auratus luteus, subsp. nov. Northern Flicker." The Auk, vol. XV (old series vol. XXIII), no. II: 177-178. New York NY: L.S. Foster.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/27447364

Cory, Charles B. (Barney). October 1886. "Descriptions of Thirteen New Species of Birds From the Island of Grand Cayman, West Indies: Colaptes gundlachi, sp. nov." The Auk, III (old series vol. XI), no. IV: 502. New York NY: L.S. Foster.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/15933387

Gmelin, Jo. Frid. (Johann Friedrich). 1788. "36. Picus cafer." Caroli a Linné Systema Naturae, tom. I, pars I: 431. Editio Decima Tertia, Aucta, Reformata. Lipsaie [Leipzig]: Impensis Georg Emanuel Beer.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/2897031

Griscom, Ludlow. 1933. "The Ornithology of Guerrero, Mexico: Colaptes cafer nanus subsp. nov." Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard College, LXXV, no. 10: 381-382.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/2806840

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Gundlach, John. 1858. "Notes on Some Cuban Birds, With Descriptions of Three New Species: 1. Colaptes chrysocaulosus." Annals of the Lyceum of Natural History of New York, vol. VI: 273. New York NY: Wiley & Halsted; London UK: Trubner & Co.; Paris, France: Hector Bossange.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/16023877

Jones, Howard. 1886. Illustrations of the Nests and Eggs of Birds of Ohio. Illustrations by Mrs. N.E. Jones. Vol. II. Circleville OH: s.n. (sine nomine).
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/34908243

Lafresnaye, Fr. (Frédéric) de. February 1844. "Oiseaux Nouveaux du Mexique: 6. Familia Picidae Genus Colaptes Swainson. Col. mexicanoïdes Nob." Revue Zoologique, septième année (février):42-43.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/2284713

Linnaeus, Carl. 1758. "8. Cuculus auratus." Systema Naturae per Regna Tria Naturae, Secundum Classes, Ordines, Genera, Species, cum Characteribus, Differentiis, Synonymis, Locis, Tomus I, Editio Decima, Reformata: 112. Holmiae [Stockholm, Sweden]: Laurentii Salvii [Laurentius Salvius].
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/727017

Peterson, Alan P., M.D. "Colaptes auratus (Linnaeus) 1758." Zoonomen: Zoological Nomenclature Resource > Birds of the World -- Current Valid Scientific Avian Names > Piciformes > Picidae > Colaptes.
Available @ http://www.zoonomen.net/avtax/pici.html

Ridgway, Robert. 21 March 1876. "Ornithology of Guadeloupe Island, Based on Notes and Collections Made by Dr. Edward Palmer: 7. Colaptes mexicanus rufipileus, nobis." Bulletin of the United States Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories, vol. II, no. 1: 191-192. Washington DC: Government Printing Office.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/32141273

Swainson, William. June 1827. "A Synopsis of the Birds Discovered in Mexico by W. Bullock, F.L.S. and H.S., and Mr. William Bullock, jun.: 84. Colaptes Mexicanus." The Philosophical Magazine, Or Annals of Chemistry, Mathematics, Astronomy, Natural History, and General Science, vol. I (January-June 1827), no. VI (June): 440. London UK: Richard Taylor.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/15530450

Vigors, N.A. (Nicholas Aylward). 1829. "Sketches in Ornithology: Colaptes collaris." The Zoological Journal, vol. IV (April 1828-May 1829): 354. London UK: G.B. Sowerby.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/2310720