Cornell has an extensive series of several hundred intergrade or hybrid flickers from studies done in the Great Plains during the 1950s. Not one of them has different-colored feathers on its body. The color they have varies from yellow to orange to red, but it is consistent across all the flight feathers in an individual bird.
Nearly every flicker that has come into the Cornell bird collection in the last 20 years has at least some red on one of the feathers. The pattern of intensity is consistent, and usually each reddish feather has a slightly different saturation than the others. None of these woodpeckers have had any other Red-shafted characters. Most of the true intergrades show intermediate changes in other characters too, such as spots of red in the black male mustache or gray in the face. It is my conclusion that our local birds have nothing to do with Red-shafted Flickers and have none in their recent ancestry. Honeysuckle berries seems the most obvious hypothesis. Kevin Kevin J. McGowan, Ph.D. Instructor Home Study Course in Bird Biology Cornell Lab of Ornithology 159 Sapsucker Woods Road Ithaca, NY 14850 k...@cornell.edu 607-254-2452 ________________________________________ From: bounce-5684159-3493...@list.cornell.edu [bounce-5684159-3493...@list.cornell.edu] On Behalf Of John and Sue Gregoire [k...@empacc.net] Sent: Friday, April 30, 2010 9:59 AM To: KHAMOLISTSERV Cc: cayugabirds-l Subject: [cayugabirds-l] They're here This morning, we banded a Nashville Warbler, an ASY-M, and had the return of a fourth year male Yellow Warbler that we banded as a SY a few years ago. Another interesting capture was of what we call a Flicker Integrade (FLIN). This ASY-M had bilateral red-shafts on the 8th primaries. Offically it must be called an integrade but such birds have been found in our area for several years now with varying numbers of red shafted primaries. One school of thought is integrade (cross of Red and Yellow-shafted birds) while another is a dietetic influence. To my knowledge the latter is unproven and genetic studies haven't been completed on the cross possibility although we submitted feathers and swabs to UCLA several years ago as part of the H5N1 study. J -- John and Sue Gregoire Field Ornithologists Kestrel Haven Avian Migration Observatory 5373 Fitzgerald Road Burdett,NY 14818-9626 Website: http://www.empacc.net/~kestrelhaven/ "Conserve and Create Habitat" -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html 3) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ -- -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html 3) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
