Possible Male Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, Estes Park, Larimer Co. 9/10

[Jim Nelson]

We had quite an interesting experience this afternoon at our vacation home on the west end of Estes Park. I was scanning for birds from our deck, when I saw a woodpecker land on the side of a wooden telephone pole in front of our house, no more than 100 feet away. Looking at the bird through binoculars I at first assumed it was a Red-naped Sapsucker -- red throat, red on the top of the head, yellow belly. But I quickly realized it had absolutely no red on the back of the head (very white instead) and had a strong black border between the red of the throat and the rest of the head. It really looked like the male Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers I see at home in Maryland in the winter. The bird flew before I could get my camera. I tried to track it down, unsuccessfully, and then I made notes of my observation before going to books and online resources. Reviewing the illustrations and descriptions in several field guides, this seems to be a male Yellow-bellied Sapsucker. I remembered articles on the subject of distinguishing Red-naped from Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers. I read online Tony Leukering's "In the Scope" article from the October 2007 "Colorado Birds" about some female Red-naped Sapsuckers with all-red throats. Tony doesn't say whether the female he observed and photographed for that article had red on its nape. The overall size of its red throat seems bigger than the bird I observed. Unfortunately I cannot access online the article in the November/December 2006 "Birding" about "Variation in Red-naped and Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers", so that will have to wait until I get home to Maryland. I'm mindful that other observations of Yellow-bellied Sapsucker in Colorado have generally been on the plains and along the foothills (checking eBird and the CBRC database), so up here in Estes Park would be even more unlikely. Also, Tony's entirely red-throated female Red-naped Sapsucker was photographed in Rocky Mountain National Park only a couple of miles from where we are. And there is always the issue of an intergrade between the two species.


Our neighborhood is mostly Ponderosa Pine and brushy areas up on the side of a hill, so I don't know how likely it might be that this bird will reappear. Whichever it turns out to be, it is a new species for our yard here.


Jim Nelson
Bethesda, Maryland