Northern Flicker Hybrid

I banded an interesting woodpecker in our Olympia backyard on 30 January 2021. At the net, I assumed this bird was a Yellow-shafted Flicker. The wing and tail feathers sported bright yellow shafts. The red “mustache” stripe running from the bill and the red back of the head (nape) gave me pause. Yellow-shafted Flickers have black mustache stripes—red stripes are a mark of Red-shafted Flickers. On the other hand, Yellow-shafted Flickers have red napes, while Red-shafted birds lack a contrasting colored nape—not red or black. Yellow-shafted and Red-shafted flickers are now considered subspecies of Northern Flickers. This bird is clearly a hybrid between the two races—hybrids are not uncommon and are one reason for their merge into a single species. The hybrid zone between these flickers runs across the midwest and then northwest from Montana to Alaska. A hybrid in Olympia probably hatched well north of here.