A Unique Experience

On December 16, 2023, I headed outside to find that three Northern Flickers (Colaptes auratus) were competing, well the males were competing, and the female was watching with mild interest. A male flew down and began to hammer at a suet feeder. Upon noticing the male, I looked through my lens and almost exploded with disbelief and excitement. The woodpecker had two red spots! 

  Okay, you’re probably wondering, What is so important about a flicker with two red spots? Well, usually flickers have only one red spot located on the back or front of the head depending on the subspecies. However, an uncommon variant shows red on the front and back of the head. These amazing birds are known as intergrades. When I entered the house, I immediately looked up the Northern Flicker Intergrades article on the MPG Ranch website, which I had read a few months earlier. One noticeable quality of most intergrades is the red nape and malar (see drawing on left for what nape and malar mean). 

   I found this experience so unbelievable that I decided to record it in my birding log. I copied the passage below,

December 16, 2023

It was 27° out and there was a lot of cloud cover. At 10:24 am, I witnessed two male Northern Flickers (Colaptes auratus) competing over a rather bored-looking female. The weird part was, one of the males had a red nape as well as a red malar, indicating that it was an intergrade. Probably my favorite moment was when I realized that it was intergrade.

-Dottie

I always get so excited when I see a flicker and that day was the most thrilling. Usually, in the winter there aren’t many flickers in our yard so when I see one during a hike they seem so big compared to the chickadees and sparrows that frequent our feeders. This year, a multitude of flickers flew into our yard and checked the food out. No matter how many times I see a flicker, they will always look and seem magnificent.