Animalia > Chordata > Aves > Piciformes > Picidae > Colaptes > Colaptes auratus

Colaptes auratus (Northern Flicker; Yellow-shafted Flicker)

Synonyms: Cuculus auratus
Language: French; Spanish

Wikipedia Abstract

The northern flicker (Colaptes auratus) is a medium-sized member of the woodpecker family. It is native to most of North America, parts of Central America, Cuba, the Cayman Islands, and is one of the few woodpecker species that migrate. There are over 100 common names for the northern flicker. Among them are: yellowhammer (as it's known as the state bird of Alabama, not to be confused with the Eurasian yellowhammer), clape, gaffer woodpecker, harry-wicket, heigh-ho, wake-up, walk-up, wick-up, yarrup, and gawker bird. Many of these names are attempts at imitating some of its calls.
View Wikipedia Record: Colaptes auratus

Infraspecies

Colaptes auratus auratus (Common flicker)
Colaptes auratus cafer (Red-shafted Flicker) (Attributes)
Colaptes auratus chrysocaulosus (Common flicker)
Colaptes auratus collaris (Common flicker)
Colaptes auratus gundlachi (Common flicker)
Colaptes auratus luteus
Colaptes auratus mexicanoides (Guatemalan Flicker)
Colaptes auratus mexicanus (Common flicker)
Colaptes auratus nanus (Common flicker)
Colaptes auratus rufipileus

EDGE Analysis

Uniqueness Scale: Similiar (0) 
2
 Unique (100)
Uniqueness & Vulnerability Scale: Similiar & Secure (0) 
17
 Unique & Vulnerable (100)
ED Score: 5.70314
EDGE Score: 1.90258
Learn more at EDGE of Existence programme

Attributes

Adult Weight [1]  128 grams
Birth Weight [3]  5 grams
Breeding Habitat [2]  Forests
Wintering Habitat [2]  Forests
Diet [4]  Carnivore (Invertebrates), Frugivore, Granivore
Diet - Fruit [4]  20 %
Diet - Invertibrates [4]  70 %
Diet - Seeds [4]  10 %
Forages - Ground [4]  100 %
Clutch Size [5]  6
Clutches / Year [3]  1
Fledging [1]  28 days
Global Population (2017 est.) [2]  10,000,000
Incubation [3]  11 days
Mating Display [6]  Ground display
Mating System [6]  Monogamy
Maximum Longevity [3]  13 years
Migration [7]  Migratory
Snout to Vent Length [1]  13 inches (33 cm)
Speed [8]  21.251 MPH (9.5 m/s)
Wing Span [8]  19 inches (.494 m)
Female Maturity [3]  1 year
Male Maturity [3]  1 year

Ecoregions

Protected Areas

+ Click for partial list (100)Full list (314)

Ecosystems

Biodiversity Hotspots

Name Location Endemic Species Website
California Floristic Province Mexico, United States No
Caribbean Islands Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, Bahamas, Barbados, Cayman Islands, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Jamaica, Martinique, Montserrat, Netherlands Antilles, Puerto Rico, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent And The Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks And Caicos Islands, Virgin Islands - British, Virgin Islands - U.S. No
Madrean Pine-Oak Woodlands Mexico, United States No
Mesoamerica Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama No

Emblem of

Alabama

Prey / Diet

Betula papyrifera (mountain paper birch)[9]
Opuntia robusta var. larreyi (Wheel Cactus)[10]
Opuntia streptacantha var. pachona[10]
Toxicodendron diversilobum (pacific poisonoak)[9]
Zea mays (corn)[9]

Prey / Diet Overlap

Predators

Consumers

Range Map

External References

NatureServe Explorer

Audio

Play / PauseVolume
Provided by eNature via Myxer Author: Lang Elliot

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
♦ 1Nathan P. Myhrvold, Elita Baldridge, Benjamin Chan, Dhileep Sivam, Daniel L. Freeman, and S. K. Morgan Ernest. 2015. An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96:3109
♦ 2Partners in Flight Avian Conservation Assessment Database, version 2017. Accessed on January 2018.
♦ 3de Magalhaes, J. P., and Costa, J. (2009) A database of vertebrate longevity records and their relation to other life-history traits. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 22(8):1770-1774
♦ 4Hamish Wilman, Jonathan Belmaker, Jennifer Simpson, Carolina de la Rosa, Marcelo M. Rivadeneira, and Walter Jetz. 2014. EltonTraits 1.0: Species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals. Ecology 95:2027
♦ 5Jetz W, Sekercioglu CH, Böhning-Gaese K (2008) The Worldwide Variation in Avian Clutch Size across Species and Space PLoS Biol 6(12): e303. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.0060303
♦ 6Terje Lislevand, Jordi Figuerola, and Tamás Székely. 2007. Avian body sizes in relation to fecundity, mating system, display behavior, and resource sharing. Ecology 88:1605
♦ 7Myers, P., R. Espinosa, C. S. Parr, T. Jones, G. S. Hammond, and T. A. Dewey. 2006. The Animal Diversity Web (online). Accessed February 01, 2010 at animaldiversity.org
♦ 8SCALING OF MUSCLE COMPOSITION, WING MORPHOLOGY, AND INTERMITTENT FLIGHT BEHAVIOR IN WOODPECKERS, BRET W. TOBALSKE, The Auk 113(1):151-177, 1996
♦ 9Jorrit H. Poelen, James D. Simons and Chris J. Mungall. (2014). Global Biotic Interactions: An open infrastructure to share and analyze species-interaction datasets. Ecological Informatics.
♦ 10Seed predation and dispersal in a dominant desert plant: Opuntia, ants, birds, and mammals, Mario González-Espinosa and Pedro F. Quintana-Ascencio, Frugivores and Seed Dispersal (eds A. Estrada & T. H. Fleming.), pp. 273–284. Dr W. Junk, Publishers, Dordrecht.
♦ 11Mustela frenata, Steven R. Sheffield and Howard H. Thomas, MAMMALIAN SPECIES No. 570, pp. 1-9 (1997)
♦ 12DIET COMPOSITION AND REPRODUCTIVE SUCCESS OF MEXICAN SPOTTED OWLS, Mark E. Seamans and R.J. Gutiérrez, J. Raptor Res. 33(2):143-148
♦ 13Gibson, D. I., Bray, R. A., & Harris, E. A. (Compilers) (2005). Host-Parasite Database of the Natural History Museum, London
♦ 14International Flea Database
Ecoregions provided by World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF). WildFinder: Online database of species distributions, ver. 01.06 Wildfinder Database
Biodiversity Hotspots provided by Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Audio software provided by SoundManager 2
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0