Out on a limb

["John Morgan" <jmorgan480 at comcast dot net>]

Today while walking the JR Parkway N of 78th S in W Jordan (right by the 
water treatment plant) 4 p.m., I saw a bird that by all appearances 
(size, shape, characteristics, head shape) seemed to be a Northern 
Flicker. Only problem was the coloring....this bird was black, or 
slightly variegated black...somewhat like a Starling. I saw it flying 
away, then roosting with backside towards me, then further away on the 
ground from the side. From the side view, I noticed how black the head 
was....slightly blacker than body/wings.

It was so Flicker-like that I figured it to be a rare Red-Tailed Hawk 
morph of the Norther Flicker (private joke). From the perching rear 
view, the tailfeathers were Flickerlike...pointy and curved at the tip 
like a woodpecker's tail. I saw no visible white striping or patches 
anywhere on this bird.

Consulting Sibley later, I can find no match to what I saw.

My only explanation for the dark coloring, given the proximity to the 
sewer treatment plant, is chemical mutation ;-)

Could this be a Flicker? Three-toed? I saw NO yellow. It was big like a 
Flicker. Same shape head and everything.
Mystified.
John

ps: Beaver activity escalating. Another tree felled, this time with some 
branches removed. A trail takes off from the tree to the south along the 
steep edge of the riverbank. Just north of the wooden deck overlook 
that's just S of the treatment plant.
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