Habitat
The Gilded Flicker most frequently builds its nest hole in a majestic saguaro cactus, excavating a nest hole nearer the top than the ground. The cactus defends itself against water loss into the cavity of the nesting hole by secreting sap that hardens into a waterproof structure that is known as a saguaro boot. Northern Flickers, on the other hand, nest in riparian trees and very rarely inhabit saguaros. Gilded Flickers occasionally hybridize with Northern Flickers in the narrow zones where their range and habitat overlap.
Read more about this topic: Gilded Flicker
Famous quotes containing the word habitat:
“Nature is the mother and the habitat of man, even if sometimes a stepmother and an unfriendly home.”
—John Dewey (1859–1952)
“Neither moral relations nor the moral law can swing in vacuo. Their only habitat can be a mind which feels them; and no world composed of merely physical facts can possibly be a world to which ethical propositions apply.”
—William James (1842–1910)