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Order: Piciformes, Family: Picidae
Genus: Colaptes, Species: Auratus.Cafer, L 12 inches
Range
The yellow-shafted form lives year round in the southeast of the continent and as far west as Texas, Oklahoma, eastern areas of New Mexico and Colorado. The northern year round limit is in: southern areas of Nebraska and Iowa; nearly all of Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, and Pennsylvania; extreme southeast New York and Massachusetts.
The summer range extends both northward and westward to include: all of the northeast US, and west to eastern Wyoming and Montana. The summer range includes all of the
Canadian Shield except the arctic and boreal ecoregion. The summer range also includes nearly all North American areas in the
Interior Lowlands and the Great Plains in both
Canadian the
US, as well as parts of the
Rocky Mountains and the Basin and Range in both
Alaska and in
Canada.
The Winter range is throughout Texas, the Mexican Northern
Sierra Madre, Cuba, and parts of Central America.
Habitat
Open forests, wood lots, groves, towns, and some semi-open country. With such a huge range, from northwest Alaska to Central America, the flicker can be found in almost any habitat that includes trees.
The flickers tend to avoid dense unbroken forest because they require some open ground for foraging, but can be found in extreme open country that have few trees.
Description
Brown back with black barring, white rumps, spotted under parts with black breast crescent. Yellow-shafted form has yellow in wings and under tail, seen when in flight.
Crown is gray with a red nape patch. Male has a black mustache.
Feeds heavily on ground ants and feed in trees like other woodpeckers.
Song is a repeated ringing call: Wik-wik-wik-wik-wik
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