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Northern Flicker | Colaptes auratus
Gouden grondspecht | Carpintero escapulario
The Northern Flicker is a large, brown woodpecker that often feeds on the ground on ants. It breeds in North America, Central America and in two places in the Caribbean: Cuba, with the subspecies Colaptes auratus chrysocaulosus, and Grand Cayman, with Colaptes auratus gundlachi, the smallest form of the species. Both belong to the yellow-shafted group, with yellow underwings and tail shafts.
Voice
A loud, falling kee-yer, a long series of rapid wick-wick-wick calls and, during encounters, a soft wicka-wicka. It also drums.
Recording: Don Profota — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · converted to mono · xeno-canto
Identification
30–35 cm. Back and wings are brown with black bars, the rump white. Crown and nape are grey, with a red crescent on the nape; face and throat are light brown. A black crescent marks the breast; the rest of the underparts is pale buff with round black spots. The undersides of wings and tail and the shafts of the flight feathers are yellow. The male has a black moustache, lacking in the female.
Confusion species
Fernandina's Flicker Colaptes fernandinae is more uniformly yellowish-buff with fine black barring all over, lacks the red nape patch, grey crown and black breast band, and has no white rump. West Indian Woodpecker Melanerpes superciliaris has a black-and-white barred back, much red on the head and unspotted underparts.
Habitat
In Cuba open woodland, pine forest, palm savanna, forest edges and farmland with trees; on Grand Cayman dry forest, mangrove edges and gardens with trees. It forages much on the ground for ants and their larvae, also in trees for insects, and eats fruit and seeds. It excavates a nest hole in a dead tree or palm trunk.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation types of the Caribbean.
Range and movements
In the region resident in Cuba and on Grand Cayman. Outside the region it breeds from Alaska and Canada through the United States and Mexico to Nicaragua; northern birds move south in winter into the southern United States.
- Resident
- Winter visitor (c. Apr–Sep)
- Passage (Mar–Apr, Oct–Nov)
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
In Cuba often seen in open woodland and palm savanna, including the Zapata Peninsula, where it occurs alongside Fernandina's Flicker; the red nape patch, black breast band and white rump in flight separate the two. On Grand Cayman in dry forest and around gardens.
Conservation status
Not threatened. The species has a very large range. The small population on Grand Cayman is vulnerable to the loss of dry forest to development.
Scientific name
Colaptes auratus | (Linnaeus, 1758)
Linnaeus described the species in 1758 as Cuculus auratus; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Colaptes was introduced in 1825 by Vigors. Colaptes is Greek kolaptēs 'chiseller', from kolaptō 'to peck, to chisel', after the hacking into wood. auratus is Latin for 'gilded', after the golden-yellow underside of the wings and tail. The specimen the first description was based on came from South Carolina.