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Colaptes auratusnorthern flicker

By Janice Pappas

Ge­o­graphic Range

This wood­pecker ranges from Alaska east­ward to Que­bec, then south through­out the en­tire United States. North­ern Flick­ers are mi­gra­tory and win­ter in the south­ern part of this range and in north­ern Mex­ico (Palmer and Fowler 1975, Far­rand, Jr. 1988, Win­kler et al. 1995). In ad­di­tion, these wood­peck­ers are found on Grand Cay­man, Cuba, and range as far south as the high­lands of Nicaragua (Win­kler et al. 1995).

Habi­tat

These wood­peck­ers are found in wooded areas that have stands of dead trees (Palmer and Fowler 1975). They are also found in open areas, for­est edges, clear-cut areas, burnt areas, agri­cul­tural lands, and res­i­den­tial areas (Win­kler et al. 1995).

Phys­i­cal De­scrip­tion

This bird is 30 to 35 cm in length (Palmer and Fowler 1975, Win­kler et al. 1995). Its wingspan is 54.1 cm, tail length is 12.2 cm, and bill length is 4.2 cm (Palmer and Fowler 1975). This is the only wood­pecker to have a gray-brown barred back and white rump. The male has a tan head, gray crown, red nape, black mous­tache, and a black cre­sent on the breast. Un­der­neath, the male is light tan with heavy black spot­ting. The tail is black on top. In the East­ern form, Yel­low-shafted Flicker, the male has yel­low un­der­wings and under the tail, while the West­ern form, the Red-shafted Flicker, has red­dish un­der­wings (Pe­ter­son 1967, Palmer and Fowler 1975, Far­rand, Jr. 1988).

  • Sexual Dimorphism
  • male more colorful
  • Average mass
    170.0 g
    5.99 oz
  • Average mass
    120 g
    4.23 oz
    AnAge
  • Range length
    30.0 to 35.0 cm
    11.81 to 13.78 in
  • Average wingspan
    54.1 cm
    21.30 in

Re­pro­duc­tion

The breed­ing sea­son oc­curs from Feb­ru­ary to July (Win­kler et al. 1995). The nest is ex­ca­vated in dead tree trunks, dead parts of live trees, or tele­phone poles (Palmer and Fowler 1975, Win­kler et al. 1995). These wood­peck­ers will build nests in nest­boxes (Palmer and Fowler 1975). Nests are usu­ally built below 3 m (Win­kler et al. 1995).

There are 3 to 12 white, glossy eggs per clutch (Win­kler et al. 1995). Larger clutches have been re­ported (Palmer and Fowler 1975), but these clutches are the re­sult of eggs from more than one fe­male (Win­kler et al. 1995). The eggs are ap­prox­i­mately 3 cm by 2.2 cm and weigh 7 g. Both par­ents in­cu­bate the eggs for 11 to 16 days. One or two an­nual broods occur (Palmer and Fowler 1975).

  • Breeding interval
    Northern Flickers breed each year, they may have one or two clutches within the nesting season.
  • Breeding season
    February to July
  • Range eggs per season
    3.0 to 12.0
  • Average eggs per season
    4
    AnAge
  • Range time to hatching
    16.0 (high) days

Both par­ents help to in­cu­bate the eggs and care for nestlings. After the nestling pe­riod of 25 to 28 days, the young re­main with the par­ents for some time, call­ing to the par­ents to be fed. Young flick­ers will molt to adult plumage from June to Oc­to­ber.

Lifes­pan/Longevity

The longest lifes­pan recorded is 9 years and 2 months for a yel­low-shafted form of the North­ern Flicker and 6 years and 8 months for a red-shafted form of the North­ern Flicker. Most North­ern Flick­ers prob­a­bly live much less than this, maybe sur­viv­ing only a few years.

Be­hav­ior

Male flick­ers rec­og­nize fe­males by sight. To pro­tect his mate or ter­ri­tory, birds of the same sex be­come ag­gres­sive to­ward each other (Palmer and Fowler 1975). Ag­gres­sive dis­plays such as "bill di­rect­ing" or "bill pok­ing" are used by flick­ers. That is, a flicker may point his bill at a rival with his head in­clined for­ward, or ac­tu­ally peck at an op­po­nent. A more ag­gres­sive dis­play is "head swing­ing," whereby a flicker will use side-to-side move­ments of his head and body against an op­po­nent. There is also a "head bob­bing" dis­play that may be used. Some­times tail spread­ing ac­com­pa­nies head swing­ing or bob­bing dis­plays (Short 1982, Bent 1992).

Young flick­ers will molt to adult plumage from June to Oc­to­ber (Palmer and Fowler 1975). After the nestling pe­riod of 25 to 28 days, the young re­main with the par­ents for some time, call­ing to the par­ents to be fed (Win­kler et al. 1995).

Flick­ers have a deeply un­du­lat­ing flight. Their song is a loud "wick wick wick wick wick," while in­di­vid­ual notes sound like a loud "klee-yer" and a squeaky "flick-a flick-a flick-a" (Pe­ter­son 1967).

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and Per­cep­tion

Ag­gres­sive dis­plays such as "bill di­rect­ing" or "bill pok­ing" are used by flick­ers. That is, a flicker may point his bill at a rival with his head tilted for­ward, or ac­tu­ally peck at an op­po­nent. A more ag­gres­sive dis­play is "head swing­ing," whereby a flicker will use side-to-side move­ments of his head and body against an op­po­nent. There is also a "head bob­bing" dis­play that may be used. Some­times tail spread­ing ac­com­pa­nies head swing­ing or bob­bing dis­plays.

Flick­ers sing dur­ing flight. Their song is a loud "wick wick wick wick wick," while in­di­vid­ual notes sound like a loud "klee-yer" and a squeaky "flick-a flick-a flick-a."

Food Habits

Their chief food is ants. Other in­sects they con­sume in­clude grasshop­pers, crick­ets, ter­mites, wasps, aphids, bee­tles and their lar­vae, cater­pil­lars, and spi­ders. Cher­ries and the berries of dog­wood, Vir­gina creeper, poi­son ivy, sumac, hack­berry, and black­gum are also im­por­tant foods as well as weed seeds, acorns, and other types of nut ker­nals (Palmer and Fowler 1975, Win­kler et al. 1995). In the fall and win­ter, greater than half their food in­take is in the form of fruit (Palmer and Fowler 1975).

  • Animal Foods
  • insects
  • terrestrial non-insect arthropods
  • Plant Foods
  • seeds, grains, and nuts
  • fruit

Pre­da­tion

North­ern flick­ers do not re­spond strongly to preda­tors. They may make ten­ta­tive flights around the preda­tor or make bill-pok­ing move­ments to­wards the preda­tor. Young in the nest are vul­ner­a­ble to nest preda­tors such as rac­coons, squir­rels, and snakes. Once they reach adult­hood, north­ern flick­ers are preyed upon by sev­eral birds of prey that spe­cial­ize on hunt­ing birds. In east­ern North Amer­ica this in­cludes Cooper's hawks and sharp-shinned hawks.

Ecosys­tem Roles

North­ern Flick­ers help to con­trol the pop­u­la­tions of their in­ver­te­brate prey, es­pe­cially ant pop­u­la­tions. They also cre­ate nests that are later used by other cav­ity-nest­ing species of birds and by squir­rels.

  • Ecosystem Impact
  • creates habitat

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Pos­i­tive

These wood­peck­ers are very use­ful de­stroy­ers of in­sect pests, in­clud­ing the Eu­ro­pean corn borer. Since they have a par­tic­u­lar taste for ants, these wood­peck­ers also elim­i­nate plant-in­jur­ing aphids which pro­vide "hon­ey­dew" for ants (Palmer and Fowler 1975).

  • Positive Impacts
  • controls pest population

Con­ser­va­tion Sta­tus

Pop­u­la­tions are not se­ri­ously en­dan­gered by human ac­tiv­ity, al­though human ac­tiv­ity some­times de­stroys their habi­tat. Few con­ser­va­tion mea­sures are being taken be­cause North­ern Flick­ers are not rec­og­nized as en­dan­gered. As a mi­gra­tory North Amer­i­can bird they are pro­tected by the U.S. Mi­gra­tory Bird Act.

Con­trib­u­tors

Jan­ice Pap­pas (au­thor), Uni­ver­sity of Michi­gan-Ann Arbor.

Glossary

Nearctic

living in the Nearctic biogeographic province, the northern part of the New World. This includes Greenland, the Canadian Arctic islands, and all of the North American as far south as the highlands of central Mexico.

World Map

acoustic

uses sound to communicate

altricial

young are born in a relatively underdeveloped state; they are unable to feed or care for themselves or locomote independently for a period of time after birth/hatching. In birds, naked and helpless after hatching.

bilateral symmetry

having body symmetry such that the animal can be divided in one plane into two mirror-image halves. Animals with bilateral symmetry have dorsal and ventral sides, as well as anterior and posterior ends. Synapomorphy of the Bilateria.

chemical

uses smells or other chemicals to communicate

diurnal
  1. active during the day, 2. lasting for one day.
endothermic

animals that use metabolically generated heat to regulate body temperature independently of ambient temperature. Endothermy is a synapomorphy of the Mammalia, although it may have arisen in a (now extinct) synapsid ancestor; the fossil record does not distinguish these possibilities. Convergent in birds.

female parental care

parental care is carried out by females

fertilization

union of egg and spermatozoan

forest

forest biomes are dominated by trees, otherwise forest biomes can vary widely in amount of precipitation and seasonality.

internal fertilization

fertilization takes place within the female's body

iteroparous

offspring are produced in more than one group (litters, clutches, etc.) and across multiple seasons (or other periods hospitable to reproduction). Iteroparous animals must, by definition, survive over multiple seasons (or periodic condition changes).

male parental care

parental care is carried out by males

migratory

makes seasonal movements between breeding and wintering grounds

monogamous

Having one mate at a time.

motile

having the capacity to move from one place to another.

native range

the area in which the animal is naturally found, the region in which it is endemic.

omnivore

an animal that mainly eats all kinds of things, including plants and animals

oviparous

reproduction in which eggs are released by the female; development of offspring occurs outside the mother's body.

rainforest

rainforests, both temperate and tropical, are dominated by trees often forming a closed canopy with little light reaching the ground. Epiphytes and climbing plants are also abundant. Precipitation is typically not limiting, but may be somewhat seasonal.

seasonal breeding

breeding is confined to a particular season

sexual

reproduction that includes combining the genetic contribution of two individuals, a male and a female

social

associates with others of its species; forms social groups.

tactile

uses touch to communicate

temperate

that region of the Earth between 23.5 degrees North and 60 degrees North (between the Tropic of Cancer and the Arctic Circle) and between 23.5 degrees South and 60 degrees South (between the Tropic of Capricorn and the Antarctic Circle).

terrestrial

Living on the ground.

territorial

defends an area within the home range, occupied by a single animals or group of animals of the same species and held through overt defense, display, or advertisement

visual

uses sight to communicate

Ref­er­ences

Bent, A. 1992. Life His­to­ries of North Amer­i­can Wood­peck­ers. Bloom­ing­ton and In­di­anapo­lis, IN: In­di­ana Uni­ver­sity Press.

Palmer, E., H. Fowler. 1975. Field­book of Nat­ural His­tory, 2nd ed.. New York: Mc­Graw-Hill, Inc..

Pe­ter­son, R. 1967. A Field Guide to the Birds: East­ern Land and Water Birds, 2nd ed.. Boston: Houghton Mif­flin Com­pany.

Short, L. 1982. Wood­peck­ers of the World, Mono­graph Se­ries No. 4. Greenville, DE: Delaware Mu­seum of Nat­ural His­tory.

Win­kler, H., D. Christie, D. Nur­ney. 1995. Wood­peck­ers: A guide to the Wood­peck­ers, Piculets and Wry­necks of the World. Sus­sex: Pica Press.

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