[birding] sapsucker?

[David Irons]

Rich et al.,

Based on your limited description of the throat and breast, it sounds likely that you had a Red-naped Sapsucker and not a Red-naped Sapsucker X Red-breasted Sapsucker hybrid. Hybrids between these two species seem to fairly consistently show read extending we down the breast and even below the black "breast shield."  

In a 23 December 2008 post to the BirdFellow.com online journal ("Don't be Suckered by Sapsuckers")I examined some good photos of an odd sapsucker that was a hybrid. You might want to compare your bird to the images in that piece. 

Dave Irons
Content Editor BirdFellow.com

From: richarmstrong at comcast.net
To: list at midvalleybirding.org
Date: Sun, 20 Dec 2009 07:20:31 -0800
Subject: [birding] sapsucker?










1. nanette, tristen, & i did south 1/2 of e e wilson 
as part of airlie albany cbc today.
2. we saw a spasucker that we think might be a red-neped 
sapsucker. we know very little about sapsucker hybrids and subspecies, but we 
have seen many yellow-bellied and decent number of red-naped in texas, and many 
red-breasted here.
3. location - south side of camp adair road, right across 
from e e wilson hq, cross the gate and there is house on left. the bird was on 
the right in the 1st 100 feet after the gate.
4. i saw the bird for maybe 3 seconds beforeit flew a 
short distance. nanette saw it maybe 1-2 seconds before it flew. tristen found 
it later  just seeing the head before it flew.
5. the bird called 4-5 times from a tree where i could not 
see it at all. the call was a 1-note loud mew. i had no idea what a sapsucker 
calls like, but when tristen played red-naped on his ipod it sounded exactly 
like it and not like the 2-note different tone of red-breasted.
6. description
    a. i saw a sapsucker mostly from the 
side with head turned away from me. it had a small red nape, some red on throat 
(did not see throat well), no red anywhere else at all (none on chest or face), 
some yellow on belly, and a rather motley grayish looking side with white patch, 
but not a sharp white/dark deliniation as in adult sapsucker. my quick 
impression was that this was probably a 1st winter bird based on 
that. 
    b. nanette writes the following: I 
noticed the bird had quite a bit of yellow on its belly and side flanks. He had 
a white 'dog leg'  line  running along the side of his face. He had a 
little red on the forehead and the back of his head. I didn't notice any red on 
the throat. The color yellow was more distictive than the red. 
    c. tristen told me he jast saw red 
throat and no red on face.
7. i encourage people to try to find this bird and let us 
know what you think.
8. i also am interested in opinions of our description 
above as to whether it eliminates red-breasted or is good enough for red-naped 
or whatever. feel free to ask questions.
Rich Armstrong
541-753-1978 		 	   		  
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