The headdress is made with flicker feathers placed alternately quill to tip, and strung with two shell discs at one end. This type of decoration was widely used in central California, for instance by the Miwok. This may be the earliest example.It was collected by Edward Belcher, perhaps on HMS Blossom, with F.W. Beechey, probably on visits to San Francisco or Monterey, in 1826 and 1827.