northeast-flora-and-fauna

A couple weeks ago I told you about a fencing duel between Northern Flickers ; over the last couple weeks it's apparent that Northern Flicker breeding season is under way. I'm seeing and hearing way more of these woodpeckers than I usually do. (They sound a little like their bigger Pileated Woodpecker cousins, which in turn sounds slightly like a maniacal laugh to me.) If you're out in the woods this week, look (and listen) for these guys. I'm hearing them a lot right now. Our Northern Flickers used to be called Yellow-shafted Flickers (denoting yellow wing/tail feathers seen best during flight) while the western US had a species called the Red-shafted Flicker (denoting reddish wing/tail feathers). Eventually ornithologists determined that the Yellow-shafted Flickers and the Red-shafted Flickers interbreed sufficiently willingly (where both species are present) that the birds evidently considered one another to be the same species. This led to ornithologists to merge...