I didn't see John's reported Red-shafted Flicker, and therefore cannot comment definitively, but to my knowledge, there are no confirmed occurrences of the Red-shafted form of Northern Flicker in New York, or of actual hybrids of Red-shafted X Yellow-shafted birds or "intergrades."
But, there are plenty of flickers with red in their flight feathers. They have nothing to do with the western form of flicker. Instead, they're an increasingly common result of the environmentally-caused changes in birds resulting from the spread of exotic honeysuckles. It's the same phenomenon that creates orange tail tips in Cedar Waxwings. See the recently published article, based in part on specimens in the Cornell University Museum of Vertebrates that I helped prepare over the last 30 years: doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1642/AUK-16-63.1 Hudon, et al. 2017 Diet explains red flight feathers in Yellow-shafted Flickers in eastern North America IMHO, it's more interesting than a wayward migrant out of range! Best, Kevin ________________________________ From: bounce-121435790-3493...@list.cornell.edu <bounce-121435790-3493...@list.cornell.edu> on behalf of John Confer <con...@ithaca.edu> Sent: Saturday, April 15, 2017 1:42 PM To: CAYUGABIRDS-L Subject: [cayugabirds-l] Red-tail incubating The red-tail is in a nest near the top of tall White Pine in East Lawn Cemetery, about 100 m north of the nearest edge of hawthorn orchard, and about 40 m up main entrance into cemetery from MItchell Rd. I walked through the area because of a Merlin nest two years ago, and hoping for another. Now that there is a nesting red-tail, I'm pretty sure that the red-tail would eat the Merlin, particularly a bird on the nest while incubating, and that there would never be a Merlin nest there. Win some, loose some. Good birding PS. This morning I saw a Red-shafted Flicker in the City Cemetery (west of North Campus) near the center from east to west but on the southern edge. Probably a migrant, but it could stay around for a while. Incidentally, I didn't hear/see a Merlin although Andy Zepp has been hearing one in that location. -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: Welcome and Basics<http://www.northeastbirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME> Rules and Information<http://www.northeastbirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES> Subscribe, Configuration and Leave<http://www.northeastbirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm> Archives: The Mail Archive<http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html> Surfbirds<http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds> BirdingOnThe.Net<http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html> Please submit your observations to eBird<http://ebird.org/content/ebird/>! -- -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
