Northern Flicker, Colaptes auratus

Northern Flicker, Colaptes auratus cafer, Female. Photograph taken in the greater Montrose area, Montrose, British Columbia, July 2025. Photograph and identification courtesy of John Orrell, Montrose, British Columbia.

Northern Flicker, Colaptes auratus collairs, Male. Photograph taken within a residential community in Hereford, Arizona, October 2009. Photograph and identification courtesy of Karen LeMay, Sierra Vista, Arizona (naturewideimages.com).

Northern Flicker, Colaptes auratus collairs, Female. Photograph taken within a residential community in Hereford, Arizona, June 2016. Photograph and identification courtesy of Bob Behrstock, Sierra Vista, Arizona (naturewideimages.com).

The Northern Flicker, Colaptes auratus collaris, and is one of eleven subspecies of Northern Flicker, of which four are found in Mexico. They are a member of the Picidae Family of Woodpeckers, which has two hundred thirty-three members placed in thirty-three genera, and one of thirteen global species of the Colaptes Genus. They are known in Mexico as Carpintero Escapulario.

The Northern Flicker is large in stature. The sexes are similar and can only be separated by a black or red malar stripe, or mustache, found on the males. They are grayish brown with irregular transverse dark-brown bars above, off-white below with numerous small black spots and a black crescent mark on the upper breast. The undersides of their wings and tail and upper surface of their flight feathers are bright salmon red or yellow. They have conspicuous white rump patch. Their bills are black during breeding season but otherwise brownish, dusky horn or grayish, their iris is a deep reddish brown, that their legs and feet are bluish gray or gray.

The Northern Flicker are found in all wooded regions of North America within open woodlands, savannas, farmland with tree rows and forest edges and normally at elevations below 1,525 m (5,000 feet). They are ground foragers that consume ants, beetle larvae and seasonal berries, fruits, and seeds as available. They have a distinctive song and the aggressively defend their territories during breeding season.

The Northern Flicker is very similar in appearance to the Gilded Flicker, Colaptes chrysoides (smaller in stature, rounded breast patch, yellow rectrices).

In Mexico the Northern Flicker is found primarily in the central highlands from the United States border south to Oaxaca. The collairs subspecies of the Cafer Group of Red-shafted Flicker in found in the southwestern United States south to northwestern Baja California and western Mexico south to Durango. Northern populations make long range migrations for seasonal wintering throughout Mexico. The mexicanus subspecies is found from Durango eastward across the Mexican Plateau to San Luis Potosí and south to Oaxaca. The nanus subspecies is found in the southwestern United Statesand northeastern Mexico from Coahuila to Tamaulipas, south to San Luis Potosí. The rufipileus subspecies that is now thought to be extinct that was found on Guadalupe Island, Baja California.

From a conservation perspective the Northern Flicker is currently considered to be of Least Concern with large, widely distributed populations. However, their populations have been in decline of late which has been attributed to loss of habitat and the invasion of the European Starling, Sturnus vulgaris, that competes for nesting sites. They have adapted well to humans and human developments. They are a common visitor to backyard feeders They have been extensively studied by ornithologists and evolutionary biologists due to their extensive hybridizations with other species. They are also a role model for the study behavior and nest use for cavity-nesting birds and have been recognized as a keystone excavator providing homes for other hole-nesting species contributing significantly to the forest ecosystems.