Wes,

Well, I've been checking my guides, and now I'm not sure what I saw. It
had a red moustache, but it had the bright yellow (apparently) undertail
feathers. Does that make it a guilded? Is it possible for a
red-shafted to have the yellow feathers that I saw? If it were somehow
a guilded, then the feathers I saw might have been the wing feathers,
right? And I would have been mistaken in assuming that they were tail
feathers of a yellow-shafted flicker. The yellow feathers were just
pushed out of the side, and I guess I just made some assumptions. The
feathers were not small. These were real feathers and enough of them to
make a bundle, it would seem. I'm afraid that I didn't have the time to
check for other details. But I think I assumed that if I just memorized
the moustache that would be enough. Is this enough information to set
me straight?

Bob Mauritsen


> Did "he" have the red nape and a black "moustache"? I've seen several
> intergrades with those marks, but not with the yellow. How exciting!
>
> >From: Bob Mauritsen <Bluetooth at csi.com>
> >Reply-To: Bluetooth at csi.com
> >To: "tweeters at u.washington.edu" <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
> >Subject: Yellow-shafted at my feeder
> >Date: Fri, 02 Feb 2001 11:19:28 -0800
> >
> >Tweeters,
> >
> >Well, darned if I didn't have a visit from a beautiful YELLOW-SHAFTED
> >FLICKER this morning. It came down amidst a small cloud of starlings to
> >my feeder and I happened to notice that the dark profile of one
> >"starling" was too big and had way too long a beak. I checked the tree
> >when they flew away, and it was a flicker.
> >
> >So grabbed the binocs and checked it out for 5 seconds before it flew
> >away, and darned if it didn't have the brightest, MOST INTENSE YELLOW
> >FEATHERS pushed out along it's tail. I had no idea that the "yellow"
> >in "yellow-shafted" meant bright, almost banana-colored feathers, but
> >brighter. Maybe more like a summer male goldfinch. I always thought
> >that you had to see the underside of the tail while the bird was in
> >flight. I didn't know that you could actually see bright yellow
> >feathers while the bird was perched. Granted, the feathers were not in
> >position. In any case, it looked a bit strange. Hope he comes around
> >again.
> >
> >Bob Mauritsen
> >Green Lake, Seattle
>
> Wes Jansen
> Fine Feathered Friends
> 603 Morris St
> PO Box 875
> LaConner, WA 98257
> (360)466-5002
> www.finefeatheredfriends.com
>
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