The Mearns Gilded Flicker 
No. 205 
Mearns’s Gilded Flicker 
A. O. U. No. 414b. Colaptes chrysoides mearnsi Ridgway. 
Description. —General pattern that of preceding forms, but color of upperparts 
lighter in tone and the black barring greatly reduced; the illumination of wings and tail 
in normal plumage similar to that of C. auratus, the distribution of red on head exactly 
that of C. cafer. Adult male in normal (yellow) plumage: Nasal tufts and pileum 
warm cinnamon-brown (sayal brown); back and wings wood-brown, lightly and narrow¬ 
ly but increasingly (proceeding backward) spotted or barred with black; rump broadly 
white; upper tail-coverts white barred with black; tail, including exposed (dorsal 
aspect) quills, black; quills dusky on exposed webs, their shafts, together with distal 
portion of under surface and basal portion of exposed lower rectrices, golden yellow 
(light cadmium); the basal portion of quills (inner webs and under surface) and wing¬ 
lining lighter (buff-yellow or warm buff); throat and sides of head and neck bluish 
ashy, interrupted by broad scarlet-red malar stripe; a black pectoral patch and remain¬ 
ing underparts lilaceous or pale orient pink, heavily marked with rounded or cordate 
black spots (quite as in the other members of Colaptes). Adult male, rufescent phase: 
As in foregoing, but illumination of wings and tail orange-pink (the shafts bittersweet 
pink, the lighter linings orient pink). Adult female (both phases): Similar to male, 
but without malar red stripe—plain bluish gray instead. Av. of 7 Colorado River 
specimens: Length 274.83 (10.82); wing 148 (5.83); tail 92 (3.62); bill 36.4 (1.43). 
Remarks. —A dwarfed and pallid (older?) brother of Colaptes cafer, probably 
differentiated by isolation in Lower California, and recently invading southeastern 
California and Arizona from the southwest. The normal yellow illumination of wing 
again points to close relationship existing between C. auratus and C. cafer, while the 
variant red phases found by Grinnell and others in the Colorado River valley appear 
to be due, as Grinnell suggests, rather to chemico-physiological changes than to 
hybridization with C. c. collaris. 
Recognition Marks. —Robin size; general marks of preceding species; lighter 
color tone and golden illumination of wings and tail distinctive in range. 
Nesting. —Breeds chiefly in holes in sahuaro cactus, but also in mesquite, willow, 
etc. Eggs: 4; glossy, white. Av. of 45 specimens in M. C. O. coll.: 27.4 x 20.6 
(1.08 x .81); index 75; range 24.1-30.8 by 19.1-22.6 (.95-1.21 by .75-.89). Season: 
April—May 15; one brood, rarely two. 
Range of Colaptes chrysoides. —Lower Sonoran zone in southeastern California, 
southern Arizona, Sonora, and Lower California. 
Range of C. c. mearnsi. —That of the species minus Lower California. 
Occurrence in California. —Resident on the west bank of the Colorado River 
above the Laguna Dam. 
Authorities.' — H. Brown ( Colaptes chrysoides), Condor, vol. vi., 1904, p. 46 
(Calif, side, Colo. R.); Grinnell, Univ. Calif. Pub. Zook, vol. xii., 1914, p. 135 (Colo. 
Valley, habits; crit .); Gilman, Condor, vol. xvii., 1915, p. 160, figs. (s. Ariz., habits, 
nest, eggs); Howell and van Rossem, Condor, vol. xvii., 1915, p. 233 (Colo. Valley, 
near Potholes in winter). 
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