The Red-shafted Flickers 
singer, or instrumental maestro; but so long as the great orchestra of 
Nature is rendering the oratorio of life, there will be place for the drummer, 
the screamer, and the utterer of strange sounds, as well as for the human 
obbligato. The Flicker is first, like all other woodpeckers, a drummer. 
The long rolling tattoo of early springtime is elicited from some dry limb 
or board where the greatest resonance may be secured, and it is intended 
both as a musical performance and as a call of inquiry. Once, as a 
student, the writer 
roomed in a large build¬ 
ing, whose unused chim¬ 
neys were covered with 
sheet-iron. A Flicker 
had learned the acoustic 
value of these elevated 
drums, and the sound of 
this bird’s reveille at 
4:00 a. m. was a regular 
feature of life at ‘Coun¬ 
cil Hall.’ 
“The most charac- 
istic of the bird’s vocal 
efforts is a piercing call 
delivered from an ele¬ 
vated situation, clape or 
kly-ak, and cheer or kee- 
yer. The scythe-whet- 
ting song is used for 
greeting, coaxing or ar¬ 
gumentation, and runs 
from a low wee-co, wee-co 
•—through wake-up, wake- 
up, wake-up —to an em¬ 
phatic wy'-kle, wy'-kle, 
wy'-kle, or, in another 
mood, sounds like flicker, 
flicker, flicker. 
“In the early days 
of April, courtship is in 
progress, and the love- 
making of the Flicker is 
both the most curious 
Taken in Oregon 
Photo by A. W. Anthony 
NEST AND EGGS OF RED-SHAFTED FLICKER 
1042 
