Gilded Flicker

Gilded Flicker, adult male; Tucson, AZ

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Gilded Flicker, adult female; Tucson, AZ

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1. Description
2. Sound
3. Conservation Status
4. Other Names
5. Cool Facts
6. Full detailed species account

A large and common woodpecker of the saguaro cactus forests of the Sonoran Desert, the Gilded Flicker has the gray face and red mustache of the "red-shafted" form of the Northern Flicker, but the yellow wings of the "yellow-shafted" form.

Description

• Medium to large woodpecker.
• Grayish brown.
• Barred on top, spotted below.
• Black crescent on chest.
• Rump white, conspicuous in flight.
• Yellow patches in wings obvious in flight.

• Size: 28 cm (11 in)
• Wingspan: 48 cm (19 in)
• Weight: 92-129 g (3.25-4.55 ounces)

Sex Differences

Male with red mustache stripe. Female with brown mustache stripe, or lacking one altogether.

Sound

Call a long series of loud "wik-wik-wik" notes. Also a softer "wik-a-wik-a-wik-a," and a strong single-note "peah."

Conservation Status

Populations appear stable or increasing in the United States.

Other Names

Pic chrysolïde (French)
Carpintero aliamarillo, Carpintero de alas amarillas (Spanish)

Cool Facts

• A study reported that European Starlings had no effect on the nesting success of the Gilded Flicker in saguaro cactus, even though the two birds compete for nest holes. Starlings did negatively affect the Gila Woodpecker, perhaps because they were able to displace the smaller woodpecker. The larger and more aggressive Gilded Flicker may have been better able to compete for holes.
• In the 1960s, taxonomists grouped the Gilded Flicker with the Red-shafted and Yellow-shafted flickers as a single species, the Northern Flicker, in recognition of the extensive interbreeding of the forms. The limited hybridization of the Gilded Flicker with the other forms, especially in light of their widespread hybrid zone, was the basis for the later change to recognize the Gilded Flicker as its own species.

Sources used to construct this page:

Moore, W. S. 1995. Northern Flicker (Colaptes auratus). In The Birds of North America, No. 166 (A. Poole and F. Gill, eds.). The Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, PA, and The American Ornithologists' Union, Washington, D.C.