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The Gorn is wrong. The bird is a northern flicker. There is no such thing as a "western flicker."

What the Gorn was reaching for was undoubtedly dim memories that once the northern flicker was treated as two species, the red-shafted in the west and the yellow-shafted in the east. But the two were combined into one a good 20 years or more back. The color of the mustache (malar) near the mouth is black for northern flickers found in the east and red for those found in the west.

Edited to add: only the males have a malar.

Oops, Canoerebel is right. The Northern Flicker, in the west where Bill is, is called the Red Shafted Flicker (as though it was a subspecies) while the one I'm familiar with is called the Yellow Shafted Flicker. There's also the Gilded Flicker but it's extremely unlikely to be seen in Oregon.

Yer getting' closer, but yer stumblin' a bit in tryin' to adjust to the ornithological changes that have meddled with your memory. There is no longer a "red-shafed flicker" and a "yellow-shafted flicker." Twenty or so years ago, the two were combined into one, the northern flicker.

Here's another way I don't know my birds. They're identifying them in the pics as male or female. I don't know how to tell them apart. I'll have to investigate that.

The males have the malar (mustache) - red in the western variety, black in the eastern. The females don't have the malar.

Disregard x 1

OK, with the female Red-Shafted there are no red markings at all. So the one in Bill's pic is a male. The female Yellow-Shafted has the same red marking as the male but has more gray on the crown.

Disregard x 2

Disregard x 3

Disregard x 4

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

Disregard x 4

Does this mean you are really, really, really, really biting your tongue?[:D]

I was gumming up the works with extraneous information!

I was led to believe that the whole "species" concept was a bit squishy no?

As Kurt Cobain put it, Mother Nature is a whore.

ORIGINAL: Anthropoid

I was led to believe that the whole "species" concept was a bit squishy no?

As Kurt Cobain put it, Mother Nature is a whore.

Really? Can you introduce me?

BBfanboy, she's a very ancient MILF. Don't do it. [:-]

ORIGINAL: Anthropoid

I was led to believe that the whole "species" concept was a bit squishy no?

As Kurt Cobain put it, Mother Nature is a whore.

Monogamous pair bonding in birds does occur. My ornithology professor quietly told us in class one day that there is a lot of "sneaky ****ing" that is more the rule than the exception.

ORIGINAL: BBfanboy

ORIGINAL: Anthropoid

I was led to believe that the whole "species" concept was a bit squishy no?

As Kurt Cobain put it, Mother Nature is a whore.

Really? Can you introduce me?

Here ya go: Nature is a whore.

ORIGINAL: Chickenboy

ORIGINAL: Anthropoid

I was led to believe that the whole "species" concept was a bit squishy no?

As Kurt Cobain put it, Mother Nature is a whore.

Monogamous pair bonding in birds does occur. My ornithology professor quietly told us in class one day that there is a lot of "sneaky ****ing" that is more the rule than the exception.

Yeah right! [:D]

There's lots of variation. Talk about the Rhea, the flightless bird from South America. The females get knocked up while running around like Valley Girls and when it comes time to lay their eggs, they find some male somewhere and lay them in the nest he built and he need not be the one who knocked her up. Males have been known to care for around a hundred chicks and there's no reason to suppose that any of them are his. He takes all comers.

ORIGINAL: geofflambert

There's lots of variation. Talk about the Rhea, the flightless bird from South America. The females get knocked up while running around like Valley Girls and when it comes time to lay their eggs, they find some male somewhere and lay them in the nest he built and he need not be the one who knocked her up. Males have been known to care for around a hundred chicks and there's no reason to suppose that any of them are his. He takes all comers.

I take it the word cuckold comes from Cookoo, which lays its egg in other birds nests and the latter poor sapsuckers do all the work raising it? From your post the word should be changed to rheald!