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. 1 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 3 (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