Yes, it has a mixture of genes of "typical" birds of the two extremes, but as others have pointed out, don't say "hybrid." If there were two "pure" species, then a bird showing characteristics of both could be called a hybrid, but that isn't the case here. What were once called separate species--Red-shafted and Yellow-shafted--were lumped into one because there's so much mixing, so much gene flow between the extremes. I haven't seen the mixing strongly correlated with geography, but the Great Plains would be kind of a "classic" location for such an intermediate. In the Evergreen skin collection there are mostly "pure" red or yellow, but several with intermediate coloration, with a mix of red and black in the males' mustaches, and so on. The inheritance must be multifactorial, and I sometimes wonder just what it is. It sometimes looks like there are alleles for yellow vs. red pigment at one locus and then genes for varied expression of those pigments in the wings, the face, and so on.

Burt Guttman
The Evergreen State College
Olympia, WA 98505 guttmanb at evergreen.edu
Home: 7334 Holmes Island Road S. E., Olympia, 98503

________________________________

From: tweeters-bounces at mailman1.u.washington.edu on behalf of Pinyonwren at aol.com
Sent: Thu 7/14/2005 10:46 AM
To: tweeters at u.washington.edu
Subject: [Tweeters] FLICKERS


JUST RETURNED FROM NE WYO/NW SOUTH DAKOTA,WHILE AT DC BOOTH NATIONAL HISTORIC FISH HATCHERY IN SPEARFISH SD I SAW A FLICKER WITH A RED MUSTACHE AND YELLOW UNDERWING/UNDERTAIL-I THOUGHT SURELY THIS IS A HYBRID.MY COMPANIONS WERE NOT CONVINCED.WHO'S RIGHT?
PATRICK NELSON JR.
EATONVILLE,WA.
MAIL TO:PINYONWREN at AOL.COM