Red-breasted Sapsucker

The Red-breasted Sapsucker is a quiet and inconspicuous bird found mainly in coniferous forests. It is common along coastal ranges of the west coast of North America. During the winter months most move south or to lower elevations along the coast.

Adult Male (spring/summer)

The entire head is red except for a black spot in front of the eye and white lores. The bill is black. The red on the head extends to the nape and over the chin and breast to a yellow belly. The back is black with narrow rows of yellow-gold spots. Wings are black with white coverts. There is a white stripe through the rump, uppertail coverts and central tail. The sexes are alike.

Adult Female (spring/summer)

Sexes are similar.

Juvenile

Plumage is similar but brownish on head, showing little or no red.

General:

Medium size woodpecker which is divided into northern and southern populations. The northern is described here. Length: 20-22 cm. Wing: 40-41 cm. Weight: 50grams.

Behaviour:

Sapsuckers create sap wells, or shallow holes, in the bark of woody plants and trees and feed on sap that appears there as well as on the insects, which are attracted, to the wells and sap. They create elaborate systems of sap wells and maintain this resource throughout the day to ensure sap production. This large investment in maintenance causes sapsuckers to defend the wells from other sapsuckers and species. When feeding young, insects are dipped in sap wells perhaps for added nutrition.

Habitat:

Common in coniferous or mixed forests along the coastal ranges, usually at lower elevation and in moist forests.

Information:

The Red-breasted and Red-naped sapsuckers, together with the Yellow-bellied Sapsucker form a superspecies. These 3 species have, for the most part, separate distributions but were long treated as forms of a single species- the “Yellow-bellied Sapsucker”- until 1983 when systematic studies warranted taxonomic treatment as separate species. The Red-breasted Sapsucker has 2 subspecies. The northern form, resident from Alaska to Oregon, is redder on the head and has less white on the back. The southern form, found in California, often shows the black and white face striping of the other sapsucker species, but all the facial feathers are tipped in red.

Similar species:

Red-naped Sapsucker, Williamson’s Sapsucker, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker.

Conservation Status:

IUCN Conservation Status listed as Least Concern.

Capture Rates:

A year round resident, the Red-breasted Sapsucker’s preferred habitat is coniferous forest which occurs within Colony Farm but outside of the banding area. Capture rates occur in June and September as a result of few individuals moving within the park.

Molt Summary:

Preformative molt includes no to few inner lesser covs and med covs and all pp and rects which are usually completely replaced by Aug. Preformative body and wing cov molt usually suspended over migration, completing on the winter grounds. Occasionally HYs retain a few juvenile body feathers through Dec, but most have completed molt by Oct. Occurs on the summer grounds.
2nd PB: usually includes all wing covs and pp, and all or most rects, but often no pp covs, or only the outermost 1-2 pp covs. 1-6 ss are retained during this molt (usually in a block s1-s6) and often symmetrically.
Subsequent PBs: from 1-5 ss often can be retained, among s1-s8, seldom in a block and less often symmetrically in both wings. A variable number of pp covs also can be retained during the 3rd and subsequent PBs; adult molts seldom complete.