Gilded Flicker

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Gilded Flicker
Conservation status
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Piciformes
Family: Picidae
Genus: Colaptes
Species: C. chrysoides
Binomial name
Colaptes chrysoides
(Malherbe, 1845)

The Gilded Flicker (Colaptes chrysoides) is a large-sized woodpecker (mean length of 29 cm) of the Sonoran, Yuma, and eastern Colorado Desert regions of the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico including all of the Baja Peninsula except the extreme northwestern region. Golden yellow underwings distinguish the Gilded Flicker from the Northern Flicker found within the same region, which have red underwings.

[edit] Habitat

The Gilded Flicker most frequently builds its nest hole in a majestic saguaro cactus. Northern Flickers, on the other hand, nest in riparian trees and very rarely inhabit saguaros. Gilded Flickers occasionally hybridize with Northern Flickers in the narrow zones where their range and habitat overlap.

[edit] References

  • BirdLife International (2004). Colaptes chrysoides. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 11 May 2006. Database entry includes justification for why this species is of least concern
  • Corman, T. E., Wise-Gervais, C. Arizona Breeding Bird Atlas. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press. (2005) ISBN 0-8263-3379-6.
  • National Geographic Society Field Guide to the Birds of North America, Third Edition. Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Society. (1999) ISBN 0-7922-7451-2.

[edit] External links

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