Canon City Yellow-bellied Sapsucker

Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers are found each winter in SE Colorado, and at least in some winters in the Ft Collins area in northern Colo. There are generally several Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers in the Canon City area, one or more in Pueblo and Lamar. I have found them on occasion in Colorado City and even in Salida, which is likely the furthest west they have been found.

This sapsucker is a female that I photographed today in Rouse Park in Canon City. Their red crowns, white wing stripe, and distinctive black and white facial stripes are distinctive of sapsuckers but the lack of red on the nape and with more white (and more diffuse) than the clear longitudinal bands found on the Red-naped Sapsucker species that is common in forested areas of Colorado in summer. Female Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers are distinguished from males by white throats as shows well in this pic. Sapwells drilled in this pine tree by this and previous sapsuckers are visible in the pic.