Northern Flicker (Colaptes auratus) Management Indicator Species Assessment Ochoco National Forest

Introduction – The northern flicker was chosen as a terrestrial management indicator species (MIS) for old growth juniper (LRMP FEIS 3-21 and 4-96). Many researchers have reported on aspects of behavior and nest use by flickers as part of general studies of cavity nesting birds. Recently such interest has intensified as flickers have been recognized as "keystone" excavators which may influence the abundance of secondary cavity nesters in forest systems (Martin et al. 2004).

Species Distribution – The Northern Flicker is a common, primarily ground-foraging woodpecker that occurs in most wooded regions of North America. Its taxonomic status has been debated because of hybridization among subspecies groups, each readily distinguished by plumage coloration. Two subspecies, the Yellow-shafted Flicker (Colaptes auratus auratus) of eastern North America and the Red-shafted Flicker (C. a. cafer) of western North America, form a long, narrow hybrid zone on the Great Plains that parallels the rain-shadow of the Rocky Mountains and crosses the Canadian Rockies to reach southern Alaska. This hybrid zone has been of great interest to ornithologists and evolutionary biologists for more than a century. Hybridization occurs on a more limited basis between the Red-shafted Flicker and the Gilded Flicker (C. chrysoides), a separate species that breeds in the Sonoran Desert. Two other subspecies of the Northern Flicker are allopatric; the Cuban Flicker (C. a. chrysocaulosus) occurs on Cuba and Grand Cayman Island, and the Guatemalan Flicker (C. a. mexicanoides) occurs in the highlands of southern Mexico south to northwestern Nicaragua.

In western North America, the Cafer Group (Red-Shafted Flicker) includes C. a. cafer (Gmelin, 1788) which includes C. rubricatus (Wagler, 1829), and C. a. saturatior (Ridgway, 1884) and occurs chiefly as a resident in the Pacific Northwest, from southeastern Alaska to northwestern California; vagrant in winter south to southeastern California and east to Great Basin (Patten et al. 2003). This group also includes C. a. canescens (Brodkorb, 1935) which includes C. a. chihuahuae (Brodkorb, 1935) and which breeds throughout Great Basin and Rocky Mountain from southwestern Canada south to north-central Mexico (to Durango and Zacatecas). It winters throughout southern portion of breeding range and to coastal California and Baja California peninsula; vagrant east of Great Plains.

Breeding Range (Figure 1) is broadly distributed in diverse woodland habitats throughout North America, generally from tree line in Alaska and Canada, from Pacific Coast to Newfoundland, south to north central Nicaragua, Florida Keys, Cuba, and Grand Cayman I. Yellow-shafted Flicker: central Alaska east to Newfoundland and south to e. Montana, e. Texas, n. Florida Keys, and Gulf Coast. Red-shafted Flicker: w. North America (generally western Great Plains west) south through s. Baja California and in interior and Pacific slope of Mexico to Oaxaca. Guatemalan Flicker: n. Chiapas south through central Honduras and n.-central Nicaragua. Cuban Flicker: Cuba and Grand Cayman Island.

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Winter Range (Figure 1) for red-shafted Flicker occurs from s. British Columbia and s. Alberta south through remainder of breeding range. Yellow-shafted Flicker generally winters from Newfoundland, extreme s. Quebec, s. Ontario, central Minnesota, s. North Dakota, and s. Alberta south through breeding range and to n. Mexico (recorded from Sonora to Tamaulipas; Howell and Webb 1995).

Figure 1. Distribution of the Northern Flicker.

Habitat Characteristics – As its broad geographic distribution suggests, the Northern Flicker is a generalist in many respects, but in others it is a specialist. It is clearly a species of open woodlands, savannas, and forest edges. Northern Flickers can be located in woodlands, forest edges, and open fields with scattered trees, as well as city parks and suburbs. In the western mountains they occur in most forest types, including burned forests, all the way up to treeline. You can also find them in wet areas such as streamside woods, flooded swamps, and marsh edges (.

Food - Northern Flickers eat mainly insects, especially ants and beetles that they gather from the ground. They also eat fruits and seeds, especially in winter. Flickers often go after ants underground (where the nutritious larvae live), hammering at the soil the way other woodpeckers drill into wood. They’ve been seen breaking into cow patties to eat insects living within. Their tongues can dart out 2 inches beyond the end of the bill to snare prey. Other invertebrates eaten include flies, butterflies,

2 moths, and snails. Flickers also eat berries and seeds, especially in winter, including poison oak and ivy, dogwood, sumac, wild cherry and grape, bayberries, hackberries, and elderberries, and sunflower and thistle seeds.

It eats mostly ants but also beetle larvae and—during late autumn, winter, and early spring—a variety of berries. The Northern Flicker is well adapted to habitats altered by humans, commonly breeding in urban as well as suburban and rural environments, and visiting backyard bird feeders.

Flickers may be common in clearcuts if snags remain standing (Conner et al. 1975, Conner and Adkisson 1977). In the west, woodland types include subalpine (subalpine fir, Engelmann spruce, limber pine, lodgepole pine; Snyder 1950), oak-juniper-pine woodland (Balda 1970), pine-oak woodland (Marshall 1957), pinyon-juniper, and montane forests (yellow pine, ponderosa pine, Engelmann spruce, Douglas fir, white fir, quaking aspen; Rasmussen 1941, Mannan and Meslow 1980). Also found in cottonwoods in riparian woodlands (WSM), and in burned woodlands (Raphael and White 1984).

Nest-tree species are strikingly variable; flickers reported nesting in most tree species in the wide range of woodlands they inhabit. Open or savanna-like structure of the habitat which provides space for foraging is more important than species of tree (Conner et al. 1975). In many northern mixed-wood boreal forests, flickers are particularly common in quaking aspen stands, presumably because aspen is preferred as a nesting tree (Wiebe 2001, Aitken et al. 2002). Threats to the Species – No known Historical Changes have occurred at the macro level, but local distributions have doubtless changed as a consequence of habitat alteration by humans. Riparian woodlands that have developed along some drainages of the western Great Plains since 1920 now harbor dense populations of this species (Short 1965a, Moore and Buchanan 1985). In other areas, loss of habitat and competition with the European Starling (Sturnus vulgaris) for nest cavities may be the cause of localized population declines. There are numerous reports of starlings usurping nest cavities from Flickers (Shelly 1935, Bent 1939, Howell 1943, Bent 1950, Brackbill 1957, Fisher and Wiebe 2006a). The intensity with which a flicker defends its nest is related to past experience with starlings but often defense is unsuccessful (Wiebe 2004). Flickers may renest after being displaced but they have smaller clutches later in the season so there are still indirect costs to eviction (Wiebe 2003). Populations not seriously endangered by human activities other than habitat destruction. Removal of snags during forestry operations and urban development seems to reduce habitat suitability (Blewett and Marzluff 2005).

Density of Red-shafted Flickers decreased on an experimental plot where ponderosa pine was harvested and snags were removed, but increased on a harvested plot where snags were left and on a control plot that was not harvested (Scott and Oldmeyer 1983). Similarly, flicker density decreased to half its pretreatment level when snags were removed from a burned pine-fir site in California, and the density of flickers was at least 5 times as high in the burned forest as at any unburned site (Raphael and White 1984).

Anecdotal deaths from pesticides have been reported (Fleischli et al. 2004) but there is no evidence that populations are particularly at risk from chemicals, ingestion of plastics, lead, etc.; or by entrapment in fishing nets, etc. Collisions with human-made objects have been reported

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(Johnston and Haines 1957), but are probably not a significant source of mortality. Commonly at nests in or near human habitation, birds are adapting well to disturbance from the presence of humans.

Conservation Status – The American Ornithologists' Union recently (1995) split the Northern Flicker into two species: Northern and Gilded (Colaptes chrysoides) flicker. Eleven subspecies in four morphologically distinct subspecies groups (Short 1982) have been identified. The group of subspecies that occurs in western North America is cafer, or the red-shafted group.

As with the pileated woodpecker above, the conservation status was identified at the global, national and State of Oregon geographical areas by NatureServe; by reviewing Federal and State Threatened and Endangered Species lists and Sensitive Species lists; by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Birds of Conservation Concern; by the Oregon Conservation Strategy; and by the Partners in Flight bird conservation strategy. Refer to the discussion for pileated woodpecker for further details on these lists and the entities that created them. The result of reviewing these lists is summarized in the table below.

Table 1. Conservation Status of the Northern Flicker. NatureServe Status Federal Status State Status Other Global National State Federally Regional USFWS Birds Threatened, ODFW Oregon Conservation Status Status Status Listed, Forester’s of Endangered, Sensitive Conservation Strategy for Proposed, Sensitive Conservation and Species List Strategy Landbirds in Candidate, Species Concern Candidate (2008) the Northern Delisted Fish and Rocky Species Wildlife Mountains and Species in of Oregon Species of Oregon and Concern Washington

*G5-- *N5B, *S5-- Not listed. Not Not listed. Not listed. Not listed Not a Not a focal Secure N5N Secure listed. strategy species species Secure Breeding, Secure Non- breeding

* NatureServe conservation status ranks are based on a one to five scale, ranging from critically imperiled (G1) to demonstrably secure (G5). Status is assessed and documented at three distinct geographic scales-global (G), national (N), and state/province (S). The numbers have the following meaning: 1 = critically imperiled; 2 = imperiled; 3 = vulnerable; 4 = apparently secure; 5 = secure.

Population Trend – Breeding Bird Survey data indicate significant declines in abundance. Reasons for these declines are unclear, but likely explanations are loss of habitat and competition with the European Starling (Sturnus vulgaris) for nest cavities. BBS survey trends (1966-2005) suggest flicker populations are declining in the U.S. (2.5% annual decline) and Canada (0.8%), with a 2.0% average annual decline throughout North America. See http://www.mbr-pwrc.usgs.gov for

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details. No clear reasons for these declines were given, although competition with other hole- nesting species may be a significant factor. Dispite these reported declines, the Northern Flicker remains abundant and well distributed across a wide range of habitats.

Habitat Analysis – The Viable Ecosystems Model (Viable) stratifies the environment along a gradient of size, structure, species composition and relative tree density. The 2004 satellite imagery layer was used to develop the Viable Map. Data is mapped on pixel grid (about 1/6 acre per pixel). This means the map is divided up on a grid and that every pixel is assigned a value that relates to a condition of size, structure, species composition and relative tree density. The various classifications (conditions) are linked to wildlife habitat requirements. For the flicker it is difficult to select a unique set of conditions that would provide suitable nesting habitat because they are habitat generalists and will nest in a variety of forest or woodland environments as long as there is some sort of nest site available (ie. a tree cavity, a nest box or other wooden structure). On Ochoco National Forest northern flickers were selected as an indicator of old growth juniper, as they are thought to be the only species likely to excavate cavities in juniper trees. Therefore, for this analysis the focus of the habitat analysis is on old growth juniper, even though suitable habitat for this species is much more widespread. As shown in the section on forested vegetation, juniper woodland only occupies 66 acres and juniper steppe only occupies 11 acres in this project area. However, juniper is also a significant component in early and mid seral conditions in dry site ponderosa pine PAGs which occupy approximately 3100 acres in the project area. As can be seen from Table 2 below large tree size class (5) in both early and mid seral conditions (E, M) in dry site pine are currently below HRV in the open (<50% crown closure) structural condition (b). The same is true for open stands of large trees in both juniper PAGs, though large size class in juniper did not occur in abundance in this project area even at the high end of HRV (9 acres in total).

Table 2. Xeric Ponderosa Pine PAG S/S Existing Low High Stage (Acres) (Acres) (Acres)

E5a 0 0 33

E5b 1 165 298

M5a 22 0 50

M5b 0 165 447

Table 3. Western Juniper Woodland PAG S/S Existing Low High Stage (Acres) (Acres) (Acres)

5

L5a 1 0 0

L5b 0 3 7

Table 14. Western Juniper Steppe PAG S/S Existing Low High Stage (Acres) (Acres) (Acres)

L5a 0 0 0

L5b 0 1 2

Even though the flicker was selected as an indicator for old growth juniper, they do nest in a wide variety of forest types. A variety of forest types do exist in abundance and well distributed across the Forest and this species is widespread and common.

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