[Tweeters] Northern Flicker

[Odette James via Tweeters]

Over the last few days, an interesting intergrade Northern Flicker has been hanging around the northern edge of the property of the Lakeshore Retirement Community (11448 Rainier Ave S, at the south edge of Lake Washington) and the small park at the edge of the lake adjacent to the airport.  The bird is a male and has plumage intermediate between yellow-shafted and red-shafted.  The nape of the neck has the red patch.  The malar patch has a lot of red but is black at the lower edge, with some black penetrating into the middle of the patch.  I have only gotten a good look at the bird foraging on the ground and perching, so I did not see much of the underside of the wings, but the perching bird shows a lot of bright yellow on the underside of the tail near the undertail coverts.  Most of my birding experience has been on the east coast, Texas, and California, so I hadn't seen an intergrade flicker previously.  Fascinating.
Odette James
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