Hello, tweeters.

Just a short comment on this subject. The Slater Museum collection is
full of intergrade flickers. They are actually not at all uncommon,
as Clarice Clark mentioned, especially if you consider every "red-
shafted" flicker with a bit of red on the nape (a "yellow-shafted"
character) an intergrade. I have one or more in my yard every year.
They are not all migrants; at least some breeding flickers in
Washington, anywhere in the state, can show intergrade characters,
although probably when you see one that's strikingly intermediate
(orange wings, black-and-red malar stripe, red malar stripe +
complete red nape band), it is likely a migrant from somewhere to the
north and/or northeast where the two types meet. They meet along a
long zone of intergradation, as you can see from looking at field-
guide maps.

Typical Yellow-shafted Flickers are in Washington normally only
during the winter, and they seem to be more common on the coast. They
presumably come here from Alaska.
-----
Dennis Paulson
1724 NE 98 St.
Seattle, WA 98115
206-528-1382
dennispaulson at comcast.net

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