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Remarks (Exceptional specimens have)

Exceptional specimens have a few red feathers in the throat stripes. A male from Louisiana has this mark entirely red and the head grayish brown, while another specimen from Toronto has half the tail orange-red. These unusual markings are supposed to be due to hybridization of our Flicker with the western or Red-shafted Flicker, which resembles the eastern species in pattern of coloration, but has the crown brownish gray or grayish brown, the throat stripes scarlet, the throat and breast gray, the under surface of wings and tail dull red, and lacks the red nuchal band. (See an important paper on the relationships of these birds by Dr. J. A. Allen, in the Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., iv, 1892, pp. 21-44).