Red-naped Sapsucker, Sphyrapicus nuchalis
Red-naped Sapsucker














The Red-naped Sapsucker is the species within the Yellow-bellied Sapsucker group that nests in the Rocky Mountains. This Red-naped, a rarity on the West Coast, where the Red-breasted predominates, was observed by local birders at Cooley Picnic Ground in Stevens Creek Park, Cupertino, for a few days in April 2008. Females of the species have a complete black border around the red on the chin, which this bird seemed to display, though not clearly enough to resolve all doubt about the bird's sex.
Red-naped Sapsucker
















This Red-naped male was working his sapsucker wells in a tree in Cave Creek Canyon in Arizona. Note the incomplete black border around the red on the chin characteristic of males.
Red-naped Sapsucker

















This male, with an incomplete black border around his red chin patch, was carrying insects to feed his nesting young, in Centennial Valley, Montana.
Red-naped Sapsucker













This is the same (probably female) bird shown in the picture at the top; she is working the sapsucker wells in the tree she visited in the spring of 2008. She may have been there longer than the few days for which she was observed, and made the wells herself, or the wells may have been made by a winter resident Red-breasted Sapsucker which had departed for its nesting ground by the time this vagrant bird arrived.