FLICKER (onomatopoetic, from the bird's note). The popular name of one of the common est and handsomest birds in the eastern United States, the golden-winged woodpecker ((iolaptes auratus). It is a little more than a fool, in length, and the bill, which is an inch and a half long, is slender and somewhat curved, very unlike the ordinary woodpecker's bill. The hack is olive brown. barred with black, While the rump and upper tail-coverts are pure white; the top of the head and the sides of the neck are ash, with a bright scarlet nuchal band: the under parts are lilac-brown anteriorly, fading into creamy yellow posteriorly, marked with 1111Ilierousi circular black spots; a broad, black crescent crosses the breast; the wings and tail are on the tinder side bright golden yellow. When the bird flies the white rump is very prominent, and makes the recogni tion of the flicker easy. This beautiful wood pecker is found throughout North America, as far west as Alaska, but in the United States it is confined to the country east of the Rocky Moun tains. In the northern part of its range it is migratory, but it winters from Massachusetts and Illinois southward. It nests, like all wood peckers, in holes in trees, and the eggs are white, five or more in number. When the nest is robbed the female will continue to lay, until sometimes more than twenty eggs have been taken from one nest. The flicker feeds on worms, insects, and berries, and is seen on the ground in search of food. The notes are varied, but the most famil
iar is a rapidly repeated, rolling call. There is also a frequent two-syllabled note, uttered in a high, nasal tone. The flicker enjoys the distinction of having more numerous popular names. than any other American bird. No less than thirty-six have been recorded, the most common of which, besides the two already given, are high-hole, or high-holder, referring to the position of the nest; pigeon woodpecker, referring to the size and ap pearance on the ground: clape and yucker, which, like flicker, are supposed to imitate one of its notes; and yellowhammer, referring to the color of the under surface of the wings and its wood pecker habit of drumming on dead limbs.
The red-shafted flicker ((olaptes ilexicanus), west of the Rocky is like the com mon flicker in color, except that the under side of the wings and tail is orange-red, and there is no red nuchal band; in habits it is exactly like the Eastern bird. A third species occurs in the val ley of the Colorado River and southward. and three other species of the genus are found in the warmer parts of America.
Consult: Cones. Birds of the Northwest (Wash ington. 1874) : Ingersoll. Wild Life of Orchard and Field (New York, 1902). See WOODPECKER: and Plates of WOODPECKERS, and of EGGS OF SONO-BIRDS.