Red-naped Sapsucker still in Canon City

This morning I was able to get into the Lakeside Cemetery in Canon City without running into a funeral so I could look for the sapsucker whose very fresh sapwells I found last week. I found a sapsucker in a Scots pine but it was quite skittish, moving behind branches when I got a view of it and retreating to the dense interior top of the tree where it was I usually could not see it. Though it looked like it might be a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, I glimpsed some red as well as white on its throat and the white on its back appeared to be organized in two rows like Red-naped.

I had to stand quite still for periods so it would move back out into a more visible location. I am glad I took the time to really check this bird out as it was a female Red-naped Sapsucker. See photos of this sapsucker here

I posted earlier on this blog that I found a female Red-naped Sapsucker at the Holy Cross Abbey and that it is very unusual for them to be here in the winter time (slighly less rare in early March per "Colorado Birds")as most birds of this species have migrated far south to southern New Mexico or to Mexico.

I have looked on several occasions for a Red-naped Sapsucker at the Abbey without luck. I am unsure if this is the same bird as there was also a female Red-naped Sapsucker found at this cemetery during the Christmas Bird Count in December.

I must say this particular bird was much more active in moving about different feeding locations on the tree than have the Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers I have seen here and other SE Colorado locations in the past several years. It is also my impression that this species of sapsucker feeds on a much larger number of trees than do Yellow-bellied or Williamson's Sapsuckers that I have watched over the past several winters.

SeEtta