Yellow-shafted flicker!!!! Leary Park Nov 5

[JeffOver]

Hi all,
I took a dry ;)walk at Leary Park yesterday between church. I found a flicker in the north-east corner of the park behind baseball diamond #2 at about 1:15 p.m. Just before I got to the corner, I caught a glimpse of it fly behind the hedge of trees--I assumed it was a regular flicker, but I decided to take a look anyway. To my delighted surprise, this one had a black moustache, and a red thing on the back of its head!! ;D Not only that, the cooperative flicker preened his wing, so I could totally see a yellow colour underneath it!!! ;D It was a yellow-shafted flicker!!!! ;D ;D

These clues make me think it's not a hybrid, but can someone verify me on that? Unfortunately, not having my bird guide at the time, I forgot to look at the head to see if it had a gray crown and neck and a brownish face as opposed to an all gray face. Anyway, I'm pretty excited about it--I think (unless someone tells me it's a hybrid) I can check it off as a B.C. bird!

Also present in the berry trees and on the ground were
White-crowned sparrows
Fox Sparrows
Cedar Waxwings (I looked for rufous undertail coverts, but didn't find any )
American Robins
Spotted Towhee
Song sparrows
Mallards (in the pond)

Very excited,
Jeff

[Gord]

Geeze, Jeff, with the facial markings and yellow underwings wings, sure sounds promising! I dont know about hybrids between these two subspecies but doesnt sound like one. Have you had a chance to look again? Im going to make a try for it as soon as I can.

Excellent find!

[JeffOver]

I'm planning to check it tomorrow morning around 8:00 a.m., hopefully. I'd be surprised to see it there, considering that they fly relatively large distances, but you never know I guess.
--Jeff