Chilean Flicker Colaptes pitius Scientific name definitions

The Chilean Flicker is restricted to the temperate forests and Mediterranean zone of Chile and Argentina. It is a somewhat unusual looking flicker, having a largely barred pattern and bright whitish eyes. In overall appearance it somewhat resembles the very distant geographically, Fernandina’s Flicker (Colaptes fernandinae) of Cuba. Like the Fernandina’s, this is the only other flicker in which males do not show any red in the plumage. Males of the Chilean Flicker have a more marked moustache area, lacking in the female. Unlike the Fernandina’s Flicker, the Chilean has a dark crown and dense barring on the breast. The wing feather shafts are yellow, giving a dull yellow flash when it flies. This flicker shows a white rump in flight, and in shape it is relatively short billed and short-tailed. It is a common species anywhere there are trees, including non-native species near towns and villages. The pre-requisite appears to be trees, of any type as the forest types it is found in include very dry xeric forest and edge of Matorral shrubland to extremely wet temperate rainforest and all types in-between. It takes mature and old growth to second growth, but prefers the forest edge or more open sections of forest. The Chilean Flicker forages on the ground on insects as well as up on trees. Most often they are observed in pairs, and late in the breeding season as family groups.

c. 30 cm; 100–163 g. Male has dark slate-grey forehead to nape, blacker at sides, nape rarely with hint of red; buffish lores, area around eye and ear-coverts, buffish malar region finely spotted black or black and red; buffish-white chin and throat , spotted black on lower throat; upperparts, including wing-coverts and tertials, blackish-brown with narrow white to buff-white bars, in worn plumage much browner with pale bars mostly lost; rump unmarked white or with few black spots; dark brown flight-feathers, primaries notched whitish with pale shafts, secondaries narrowly barred whitish-buff; uppertail brown-black, outer and central feather pairs narrowly barred white; whitish below, broadly barred blackish-brown, bars tending to merge on breast, belly with smaller markings or plain; underwing yellowish, darker tip, some bars on primary coverts; undertail yellowish, obscurely barred; fairly long bill pointed, culmen curved, narrow across nostrils, black; iris yellowish; legs grey or green-grey. Female lacks black or red in malar, never shows any red on nape. Juvenile as adult, but crown blacker with narrow buff tips, more broadly barred above, more spotted below, eyes brown.

Almost exclusively ants and their brood; other items, such as scorpions (Scorpiones) and grubs, occasionally taken. Roves about in noisy family groups, easily detected. Forages mainly on ground , but never far from trees. Hops on ground, where feeds by poking, sweeping away debris, and digging into soil; also investigates fallen logs and stumps. Rarely forages in trees, and then rather unenthusiastically; flies into trees when alarmed, and may then peck in agitated manner.

Distinct repeated externallink ; whistled variable “kwee”, singly or in series, louder and more raucous than note of C. rupicola; long “wic wic wic” series , higher-pitched and less clear than corresponding notes of C. auratus; “week-a, week-a” during encounters similarly higher.

Reported in Oct–Dec. Known displays are head-swinging, bobbing with tail-spreading. Nest excavated in dead tree or stub, or in bank ; apparently highly territorial. Clutch 4–6 eggs; no information on incubation and fledging periods.