[Tweeters] Yellow-shafted flicker

[Steve Hampton via Tweeters]

Intergrade flickers are quite common here (Port Townsend) in winter--
probably 25% of all birds. I also see them regularly (though maybe 5-10% of
total) in summer as part of the breeding population, feeding young, etc.
Usually those are red-shafted in most features but have a red nape mark.

I've only seen pure Yellow-shafted once or twice in the last 5 years, in
winter.



On Mon, Jan 5, 2026 at 6:37 PM Michael Price via Tweeters <
tweeters at u.washington.edu> wrote:


> Hey tweets,

>

> In the early 90s I was part of a breeding-bird inventory in north-central

> BC, near Manson Creek just W of Williston Lake. It's an area where due to

> openings in the boreal forest caused by *very* extensive clear-cutting,

> eastern avifauna were able to  penetrate more and more widely into the

> region*, and one result was that we saw a *lot* of intergrading between

> Red- and Yellow-shafted Flickers, between Oregon and Slate-colored Juncos (

> *cismontanus* was the norm), and Red-breasted X Yellow-bellied Sapsucker

> hybrids.

>

> *that clear-cutting of the boreal forest and consequent westward

> colonisation resulted in a lot of eastern sparrows extremely rare in the

> 1970s have now become not only regular but increasingly common as wintering

> birds along the mid-Pacific flyway: Swamp Sparrow, Clay-colored Sparrow,

> White-throated Sparrow are now regular wintering species and in good

> numbers when once upon a time their single—even first-time—occurrence would

> have resulted in dropped tools and unfinished meals.

>

> best, m

>

> Michael Price

> Vancouver BC Canada

> loblollyboy at gmail.com

>

> Every answer deepens the mystery.

>                          -- E.O. Wilson

>

>

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-- 
​Steve Hampton​
Port Townsend, WA  (qatáy)
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