Gilded Flicker (Colaptes chrysoides) [XC247322]
by Richard E. Webster from Lincoln Ranch, Bill Williams River, Arizona, United States (call)
Gilded Flicker (Colaptes chrysoides) [XC221262]
by Jarrod Swackhamer from Saguaro National Park, AZ, United States (call)
Subspecies
Forms a superspecies with Yellow-shafted Flicker (Colaptes auratus). Genetically is not significantly divergent from south-western "cafer group" of that species, and treated as conspecific by some authors, but separated to a reasonable extent by habitat preferences, with limited hybridization. Better considered treated as allospecies. Subspecies intergrade clinally.
The following 4 subspecies are recognised:
brunnescens Anthony, 1895 - Northern and central Baja California.
mearnsi Ridgway, 1911 - Extreme south-eastern California (Colorado Valley) and southern and central Arizona southern in desert to north-western Mexico (northern Sonora).
tenebrosus van Rossem, 1930 - Northern Sonora to northern Sinaloa.