|
|
. |
The Red-Shafted Flicker
The Red-Shafted Flicker (Colaptes cafer), largest of our common
woodpeckers, is larger (12" to 14") than the robin. It is strikingly
colored, exhibits individuality and strong curiosity. Dr. J. H. Paul
describes the flicker as follows: "The body is brownish, the throat slaty
gray, the back barred, and the underparts spotted with black; the chest is
marked with a black crescent, and the male has a showy red mustache. The bird
is unmistakable; the large size, the flash of scarlet on his outstretched
wings and tail as he hurtles past in a strong, bounding flight, and the
white patch on the rump are plain marks of identification. Often he says,
"if, if, if, if, if, if, if", and to his mate when wooing, he has a "wicka,
wicka, wicka" sort of phrase. He is ardent, forceful, entertaining, and
most useful to us, his main food being insects; 56% of it those troublesome
creatures, the ants."
The flickers render a great service in controlling the ants which are
destructive to forests and to our food supply, and which protect aphids that
also damage vegetation and valuable crops. The insects eaten include
beetles, moths, butterflies and grasshoppers. In their diet also are the
fruits of chokeberry, elder, dogwood, Virginia creeper, sumac, poison ivy,
hackberry, poison oak, wild grapes and juniper berries. Their tongues are
long and sticky, not barbed.
According to Dr. George H. Lowery, Jr., in National Geographic, "The male
flicker claims his breeding territory with noisy drilling. He drums on a
hollow trunk, a dead branch, a television antenna, or a metal roof as a
sounding board. This drumming warns off rivals and informs his mate that he
has found a nesting site ... When these birds are courting, they face each
other with heads tilted back, necks outstretched, and bills pointed skyward.
Their bodies sway from side to side, and their heads are constantly moving."
Flickers are wood workers, using only wood chips in building a nest. Like
all woodpeckers they (both birds share the task of drilling) use their bills
to chisel out a nest in some tree, growing or dead, a tree stump, or a
telephone pole. Frequently they may bore through the walls of houses or
barns, and lay their eggs on beams with wood chips placed around to keep
them from rolling off. Six to ten glossy white eggs are laid; both birds
incubate them, the male taking the night shift. The young are lively and
vigorous from time of hatching, and the task of feeding them is shared by
the parent birds.
As a rule, flickers hew out a new nest each spring. The old holes are
quickly taken over by other species of birds -- tree swallows, sparrow
hawks, screech owls, and saw-whet owls. Now starlings compete with the
flickers, and even take over the new holes before the hard-working female
has a chance to lay eggs, and her mate to drive them away from their
territory.
The Red-Shafted Flickers are found from Alaska to the western part of the
Great Plains, south through western United States and Mexico to Guatemala.
They are year-round residents in Utah. In the eastern part of their range,
the Red-Shafted readily interbreeds with the Yellow-Shafted, and it it not
uncommon to observe birds with mixed characteristics.
-- by Marie L. Atkinson
|
|
