Hybrid Northern Flicker

[Roy Priest]

I believe this to be a hybrid of yellow and red shafted flicker.
Nikon D4, 500mm, ISO 1600, 1/1250@F5.6, tripod

[Brian E. Small]

Lovely shot Roy.................you're on the right track but birds like this are more properly called an "intergrade". A true hybrid is a bird who has parents of two different species. Northern Flicker is a single species with two color morphs and when those two produce offspring they are referred to as intergrades. Hope this helps.

[Roy Priest]

Lovely shot Roy.................you're on the right track but birds like this are more properly called an "intergrade". A true hybrid is a bird who has parents of two different species. Northern Flicker is a single species with two color morphs and when those two produce offspring they are referred to as intergrades. Hope this helps.

Brian, what about this? Hybrids between different subspecies within a species (such as between the Bengal tiger and Siberian tiger) are known as intra-specific hybrids.

[Brian E. Small]

Roy,

Yes, I've heard that term as well and I'm sure there are many instances of it in the bird world. But with the flicker, the two different "types" are color morphs..............not subspecies within a single species. In this case the offspring are known as an intergrade.

[Roy Priest]

Thanks Brian. Intergrade it is.

[MohsenVahedipour]

Excellent exposure, composition, IQ & BG. TFS

[Frank Schauf]

Great pose and setting you have here.

[Bill Dix]

Whatever he's called, he's an interesting bird. Thanks for the lesson in taxonomy. Almost perfect woodpecker comp ( I might have imagined a tiny bit more tree, correspondingly less on the right.) Good light and detail.