Good morning, Gordon & Kari:

You'll probably get a lot of responses to your email as flicker cross-breeding seems to be pretty common. I lived just west of Spokane (in Reardan) at the time and had 3 juvies with varying plumage show up at the feeders. The female parent (red-shafted) was a local; the male (yellow-shafted) seemed to be just passing through. She brought her 3 offspring to the suet feeders when they were fledged and each had different coloration. They all had red shafting under the wings but one had the red crescent on the back of the neck along with red malars; the next had greyish malars - sort of stippled black - but no crescent on the back of the neck; the third looked like a normal female red-shafted. After that season I never saw the yellow-shafted again and the red-shafted female showed up (for the next few seasons that I lived there) with from 1 to 3 young, all of whom had normal Northern Flicker coloration.

Regards,
Joanne Powell
jopowell2 at juno.com
Airway Heights (Spokane) WA