Grad student Stepfanie Aguillon authored a new paper in The Auk assessing the level of genetic differentiation between red-shafted, yellow-shafted, and gilded flickers.
Up until now it was impossible to consistently differentiate these birds using genetics. Stepfanie looked at genomic patterns across much of the North American range and presents the first evidence of genomic differences. Despite the ability to differentiate the birds, she still finds they are very closely related.
Read the full paper here: http://americanornithologypubs.org/doi/abs/10.1642/AUK-18-7.1