Species: Colaptes auratus

Animalia - Craniata - Aves - Piciformes - Picidae - Colaptes - Also called the Common Flicker. Three forms previously were considered separate species, and then conspecific, then partially split: C. AURATUS (yellow-shafted Flicker); C. CAFER (Red-shafted Flicker); C. CHRYSOIDES (Gilded Flicker). Sibley and Monroe (1990), citing information from N. K. Johnson, noted that interbreeding between CAFER and CHRYSOIDES is limited; they treated the later as a distinct species, C. CHRYSOIDES. Fletcher and Moore (1992) found very little geographic variation in allozymes across the three subspecies groups and the entire continental U.S. (birds in general are known to display little allozymic differentiation, even between recognized species). These results agree with previous findings that the hybrid zone between Red- and Yellow-shafted Flickers does not act as a barrier to nuclear gene flow. The allozyme data indicate a population structure that is not congruent with that indicated by mtDNA data (see Fletcher and Moore 1992). Fletcher and Moore concluded that more data are needed before taxonomic considerations regarding the Gilded Flicker (CHRYSOIDES subspecies group) can be adequately addressed. AOU (1995) cited limited hybridization between AURATUS and CHRYSOIDES and marked clutch size differences in recognizing C. AURATUS (with CAFER) and C. CHRYSOIDES as distinct species. Isolated form on Cuba, CHRYSOCAULOSUS, usually treated as a race of C. AURATUS and form in Middle America, MEXICANOIDES, usually treated as a race of C. CAFER (AOU 1998).